A Test of Will
by KEBABREMOVER1804
Summary: -The second book in a series of 4- Lucas Shepard must stop Saren and the Reapers from destroying the galaxy. This second book is a retelling of Mass Effect 1 using elements from the previous book. Shepard/Ashley, for now... (A little bit of Shepard/Tali included) (Everything belongs to Bioware)
1. Chapter 1: Orientation

**Chapter 1: Orientation**

 _December 19th, 2182_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

"Gentlemen, welcome aboard the Normandy." Captain Anderson led us through the airlock. We stepped out, and the buzz of the ship filled the air. "Feel free to inspect the ship as you like." The Turian inspectors next to me moved off in different directions, but one of them stayed. He was clad in full combat armor, had darker skin than I'd expect from a Turian, and had white war paint on his face. What was he doing here?

"Captain Anderson, Commander Shepard. My name is Nihlus, and I'm a Spectre. The Council has shown interest in this... project... and sent me to oversee her maiden voyage. I hope you won't mind my being on the ship." Anderson and I looked at each other. A Spectre? Holy shit. I could see the surprise in his eyes. "Um... of course we don't mind! Come with me, I'll show you where you'll be staying, Nihlus." They walked off, leaving me alone at the airlock.

I turned left, and found our pilot... "talking"... with the inspectors. I don't think talking is the word for it. I think "bitching" is a better word for it. I came closer. "Hey, hey! Don't touch that!" One of the inspectors looked at him suspiciously. "Why not?" The pilot looked nervous. "Uh... porn. Lots of it." The inspector looked disgusted. "Shouldn't that be kept on a private server?!" The pilot shrugged. "Does it look like I have a private server around here?" The inspector, clearly frustrated, stormed off.

The pilot noticed me watching. "Oh, you here to chew me out like that scumbag did, Commander?" I was a bit confused, and I could see that he knew that. "Oh, sorry. I'm Joker." I raised my eyebrow a bit more. "Ok, ok Commander. I'm Jeff. Who are you?" "Lucas Shepard. Call me Thor, Shepard, whatever you want." His eyes widened, and I saw the surprise on his face. "THE Lucas Shepard? The one who survived Akuze alone? I saw all the vids! How did you survive?" I looked away, and scratched the back of my head. "I'd rather not talk about it." He shrugged. "It's ok, Commander. You don't have to tell me. Anyway, aren't there more important parts of this beauty for you to see?" He waved me away.

I won't lie, CIC looked beautiful. The commotion of the crew reminded me of home. Captain Anderson was already back up here, and inspecting the galaxy map from his position above everyone else. He honestly looked a little intimidating from down here. He noticed me, and came down to meet me. "Seen Joker?" I nodded. "A real piece of work, sir." He put his hand on my back. "You don't have to call me 'sir' all the time, you know." We both walked down the stairs to the crew deck.

"There's my quarters..." He pointed at the large room to our left. "You'll be sleeping with the rest of the crew down in the crew quarters." He pointed towards what looked like the medbay. "There's the Medbay, staffed by Doctor Chakwas. I'd say go see her now just to get that medical exam over with." I shook my head. "Not now. I just want to get to see this beauty." He shrugged. "If you insist." We went around to the elevator, and went down to the cargo bay.

"Down here's the cargo bay. Over there is our Mako, which I believe that you might've had experience with." He pointed towards a line of lockers. "Those are crew lockers. Don't touch them. Yours is on the Crew Deck." We entered a door to our left, and walked through a small hallway. What I saw made me feel in awe.

A massive engine. Best design in existence, apparently, and with a neat stealth drive. Oh, I can't wait to check this out. There were crew members everywhere, and there was one at a terminal towards the engine. "Shepard, this is Chief Engineer Adams." Adams turned around. "Commander Shepard? It's an honor." He shook my hand. "I hear you'll be second in command here, and that you're a fellow engineer." I nodded. "Yup, and I'll help you as much as I can." "Hmph, I could really use it, you know? Anyway, I know you're busy, and I've got work to do. We'll talk later, ok? Beer?" I shrugged. "Sure." Anderson tapped me on the shoulder. "We're setting off soon, Shepard. The inspectors have already left. I think we should be up in CIC." I nodded. "Yeah." We both made our way to CIC.

When we got up there the crew was standing at attention for us. We both got up to the galaxy map. Anderson spoke to the crew. "Ladies and gentlemen, today, a new era of spacefaring technology begins..." He dragged on for a while, before introducing me. "This man here is Commander Lucas Shepard. You have no doubt heard of his feats on Akuze and on many other planets. Treat him like you'd treat any other crew member. And now, ladies and gentlemen, let's get on our way!" Everyone cheered, and I heard the ship's engine fire up. Joker came over the comms. "Captain, we're ready to leave on your order." "Set a course for Earth. We'll begin our cruise there." "Aye-aye, Captain."


	2. Chapter 2: A Complication

**Chapter 2: A Complication**

 _February 3rd, 2183_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

"Thrusters, check. Navigation, check. Internal emission sink engaged... all systems online. Drift... just under 1500 K." Joker was checking to make sure everything was fine after we made the jump through the Arcturus Relay. After all, this is still a relatively new ship. Nihlus, who was standing to my right, spoke. "1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased." He walked off, leaving Joker, Lt. Alenko and I alone.

"I hate that guy." Joker remarked. "Nihlus gave you a compliment, so you hate him?" Kaidan responded. "You remember to zip up your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom, that's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead, so that's incredible!" He sighed. "Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like havin' them on board. Call me paranoid." He continued managing the ship for a moment.

"You're paranoid? The Council helped fund this project, they have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment." Kaidan seemed a little annoyed. "Well, that is the _official_ story, but only an idiot believes the official story." I think it's time for me to get in on this. Joker's kinda right, you know? "They don't send Spectres on shakedown runs." Joker looked back at me. "So there's more going on here than the Captain's letting-" He was interrupted by Anderson over the comms. "Joker, status report!" "Just cleared the mass relay, Captain. Stealth systems engaged... everything looks solid." There was a pause. "Good. Find a comm buoy, and link us into the network. I want mission reports being relayed to Alliance brass before we reach Eden Prime." "Aye-aye, Captain. Better brace yourself sir, I think Nihlus is heading your way-" Anderson interrupted him. "He's already here, Lieutenant." Joker fell silent, and all of us started shaking our heads. Oh boy. "Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the Comm Room for a debriefing." The comms shut off.

"You get that, Commander?" I was a little nervous. Does this have to do with Nihlus? "He sounds angry. Something must've gone wrong with the mission." Joker shrugged it off. "Pfft. Captain always sounds like that when he's talking to me." "Can't possibly imagine why..." Kaidan muttered under his breath. I began walking towards the Comm Room.

I noticed that Navigator Pressly was talking to Adams over personal comms. "...I'm telling you I just saw him! He marched by like he was on a mission!" "He's a Spectre, he's always on a mission..." Pressly sounded pretty pissed. "And we're getting dragged, right along with him!" "Relax, Pressly. You're gonna give yourself an ulcer." Pressly noticed me.

"Congratulations, Commander. Looks like we had a smooth run. You heading down to see the Captain?" I raised my eyebrow. "Sounds like you don't trust our Turian guest..." He scratched his back. "I'm sorry, Commander. Just having a chat with Adams down in Engineering. Didn't mean to cause any trouble. But you have to admit, something's odd about this mission. The whole crew feels it!" I shrugged. "You think the Alliance brass is holding out on us?" His face grew a little angry. "If all we're supposed to do is test out the stealth system, why is Captain Anderson in charge? And then there's Nihlus! Spectres are elite operatives, top covert agents. Why send a Spectre, a Turian Spectre, on a shakedown run? It doesn't add up." When he was done ranting, I spoke. "I'll see if I can get some answers when I see him." He turned back to his console. "Good luck, Commander..." I kept walking towards the Comm Room.

I stopped to talk to Cpl. Jenkins and Dr. Chakwas outside the Comm Room. "I grew up on Eden Prime, Doc! It's not the kind of place Spectres visit. There's something Nihlus isn't telling us about this mission." Chakwas sighed. "That's crazy. The Captain's in charge here, he wouldn't take orders from a Spectre!" Jenkins shook his head. "Not his choice, Doc. Spectres don't answer to anyone, they can do whatever they want, kill anyone who gets in their way..." They noticed me listening.

"What do you think, Commander? We won't be staying on Eden Prime too long, will we? I'm itchin' for some real action." Chakwas spoke. "I sincerely hope you're kidding, Corporal. Your real action usually ends with me patching up crew members in the infirmary." I turned to Jenkins. "You need to calm down, Corporal. A good soldier stays cool, even under fire." He seemed disappointed. "Sorry, Commander, but this waiting's killing me. I've never been on a mission like this before, not one with a Spectre on board!" "Just treat this like every other assignment you've had, and everything'll work out." He snorted. "Easy for you to say. You proved yourself on Akuze, everybody knows what you can do!" Breathe deeply. Don't think about them. Don't think about Chicken, Crazy Ivan, Lucifer, or Tombstone. Don't think about Tex. It'll only bring the voices back. "This is my big chance, I need to show the brass what I can do!" I sighed. "You're young, Corporal. You have a long career ahead of you. Don't do something stupid to mess it up." He saluted. "Don't worry, sir. I'm not gonna screw this up." "Take care, Corporal, Doc." I walked off, and entered the Comm Room.

Nihlus was looking at pictures of Eden Prime on Screen. He turned to face me. "Commander Shepard, I was hoping you'd get here first. It'll give us a chance to talk." I raised my eyebrow. Where's Captain Anderson? "The Captain said he'd meet me here..." "He's on his way." He turned back to the screen. "I'm interested in this world we're going to, 'Eden Prime'. I've heard it's quite beautiful." I decided to speak."They say it's a paradise." "Yes, a paradise. Serene, tranquil, safe. Eden Prime has become something of a symbol for your people, hasn't it?" He turned back to me. "Proof that humanity can not only establish colonies across the galaxy, but also protect them." He came closer to me. "But how safe is it, really?" What kind of question is that? Of course it's safe. Probably safer than Earth, considering what Philly was like. I raised my guard a little. "Do you know something?" He began pacing. "Your people are still newcomers, Shepard. The galaxy can be a very dangerous place. Is the Alliance truly ready for this?" The door opened behind me, and I heard Anderson enter.

"I think it's about time we told the Commander what's _really_ going on." Nihlus nodded. "This mission is far more than a simple shakedown run." I snorted. Of course. It was way too obvious. "I knew that there was something you weren't telling us." Anderson stood next to me. "We're making a covert pickup on Eden Prime. That's why we needed the stealth systems operational." "There must be a reason you didn't tell me this, sir." He lowered his voice slightly, but it was still tense. "This comes down from the top, Commander. Information on a strictly need-to-know basis. A research team on Eden Prime unearthed some kind of... beacon... during an excavation. It was Prothean."

Prothean? But they've been extinct for nearly 50,000 years. Why'd it ever be significant? Would it even work? "What else can you tell me?" His eyes widened. "This is big, Shepard. The last time humanity made a discovery like this, it jumped our technology forwards 200 years. But Eden Prime doesn't have the facilities to handle something like this. We need to bring the beacon back to the Citadel for proper study." Jesus, how long's it been since I was on the Citadel? And would the person I impersonated still be wanted? Nihlus spoke. "Obviously, this goes beyond mere human interests, Commander. This discovery could affect every species in Council space." I smiled slightly. "It never hurts to have a few extra hands on board." Nihlus began pacing again. "The beacon's not the only reason I'm here, Shepard..." "Nihlus wants to see you in action, Commander. He's here to evaluate you." I chuckled. "I guess that explains why I bump into him every time I turn around." "The Alliance has been pushing for this for a long time. Humanity wants a larger role in shaping interstellar policy. We want more say with the Council. The Spectres represent the Council's power and authority. If they accept a human into their ranks, it shows how far the Alliance has come." Nihlus looked me in the eyes. "Not many could've survived what you went through on Akuze. You showed a remarkable will to live, a particularly useful talent. That's why I put your name forward as a candidate for the Spectres."

I looked at Anderson. "I assume this is good for the Alliance?" "Earth needs this, Shepard. We're counting on you." Nihlus interrupted. "I need to see your skills for myself, Commander. Eden Prime will be the first of several missions together." Anderson took over the conversation again. "You'll be in charge of the ground team. Secure the beacon and get it onto the ship ASAP. Nihlus will accompany you to observe the mission." I looked at both of them. This is fucking huge. I wonder what my brother would think if he were here right now... "Just give the word, Captain." "We should be getting close to Eden-" He was interrupted by Joker over the comms. "Captain! We've got a problem!" "What's wrong, Joker?" "Transmission from Eden Prime, sir! You better see this!" Anderson's face grew dark. "Bring it up on screen." We turned towards the screen.

A bloody scene showed. Gunfire everywhere, men falling. Screams. Explosions. It was too much like Akuze. I felt dizzy, and felt my eyes watering up. I could hear the voices slightly. An officer took focused the camera on him. "We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties! I repeat, heavy casualties! We can't... we need evac! They came outta nowhere! We need-" He was dragged off by something, and his screams could be heard in the background in the chaos of gunfire and explosions. A grinding noise overwhelmed everything else. Everyone stopped firing, and the camera focused on what looked like a massive claw coming down from the sky. There were a few more massive explosions, and the feed cut to static.

"Everything cuts out after that, no comm traffic at all. Just goes dead. There's nothing." "Reverse, and hold at 38.5." Joker reversed the feed, and paused the transmission at the point where the claw was clearly visible. I remember that from somewhere. Was it...? No. The nightmare. The one I've been having for years. It's finally coming true... We were silent, staring at the screen. "Status report?" "Seventeen minutes out, Captain. No other Alliance ships in the area." He lowered his voice. "Take us in, Joker. Fast and quiet. This mission just got a lot more complicated."


	3. Chapter 3: The Beacon

**Chapter 3: The Beacon**

 _Eden Prime_

The Normandy dropped us off at Drop Point 2, and Jenkins, Kaidan and I watched as it flew away into the distance. The sky was red, and I could hear faint gunfire coming from the massive towers nearby. Holy shit, this place is a mess. We began moving towards the dig site, when we came across floating bag-things. Kaidan was frightened. "Gah! What are those things?" Jenkins wasn't scared at all. "Gasbags. They're harmless." Oh. I was expecting them to attack us, to be honest. That was kind of disappointing. We kept moving.

Eventually, we heard something across a field. I signalled the two to stop, and sent Jenkins forward to check it out. He moved from cover to cover, and then came out in the open. Two drones flew out from the forest, and I haven't seen a look of fear in someone's eyes like Jenkins. The drones lit him up with enough firepower to bring down a platoon. He dropped to the ground, his blood already pooling around him. Fuck! Another man dead on my watch. Kaidan and I shot the drones with our pistols, and they went down quick enough. I ran over Jenkins.

He was dead already. I closed his eyes. I could feel myself tearing up. Kaidan patted me on the back. "There was nothing we could do to save him." I got up, and composed myself. "We'll give him a proper burial when this is over. Right now, we need to continue with the mission." We continued on, leaving Jenkins' body on that field.

There was already gunfire coming from the clearing ahead. When we got there, we found a marine facing a small squad of... something, maybe Geth? It was clear that they were hostile. We began firing on them, and they were down in a matter of seconds. We came back over to the marine.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here, sir?" Why was she alone? Kaidan and I looked at each other. "Are you wounded, Williams?" She inspected herself for a moment. "A few scrapes and burns. Nothing serious. The others... weren't so lucky." She began pacing. "Oh, man... we were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit." This sounded too much like Akuze already. "We tried to get off a distress call, but they cut off our communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since." This might as well _be_ Akuze. Similar situation, minus the Thresher Maws. "Any idea what kind of enemy we're facing?" She shook her head a bit. "I think they're... Geth." Kaidan interrupted. "The Geth haven't been seen outside the Veil in nearly 200 years. Why are they here now?" Williams shrugged. "They must have come for the beacon, I guess." She pointed to a path. "The dig site is close, just over that rise. It might still be there." I looked over, and back at her. "We could use your help, Williams." She saluted. "Aye-aye, sir. It's time for some payback."

I held my hands up. "Hold up. Have you seen a turian Spectre around here?" She shrugged, and she looked confused. "There aren't any turians on Eden Prime. None that I've ever met, at least. Not sure I'd be able to tell if one was a Spectre, anyway." Kaidan spoke. "If you saw this guy, you'd know. Carries enough firepower to wipe out a whole platoon. Luckily, he's on our side." She shrugged again. "Sorry... like I said, no turians." I pointed to the path to the dig site. "Let's move out!" We raised our guns, and moved along the path.

There were Geth troops waiting for us when we got there. "Get to cover!" Ashley and Kaidan ran behind cover, and started suppressing the Geth, who were already behind kinetic barriers. As they were suppressed, I shot one in its "head", and went around a pillar. The other Geth had no idea. I shot them all in a matter of seconds, the last one twitching on the ground before shutting off. Kaidan and Ashley came over to me.

Ashley seemed shocked. "What? The beacon was right here! It must have been moved!" Kaidan looked at her. "By who? Our side, or the Geth?" She looked around. "Hard to say. Maybe we'll know more after we check out the research camp." I took a look around the dig site. "You think anyone got out of here alive?" I doubt anyone did, judging from the state of everything. But you gotta at least stay optimistic. "If they were lucky. Maybe they're hiding up in the camp? It's just on the top of this ridge, up the ramps." I nodded. "Let's move." Before we went up the ramps, Nihlus came over comms. "Change of plans, Shepard. There's a small spaceport up ahead. I want to check it out. I'll wait for you there." He cut comms. We made our way up the ramps.

The camp was in ruins, with fire everywhere. There were those spikes things that we saw earlier, except the bodies on them looked... different. More like machines. They seemed familiar, but I've never seen anything like this before. "Looks like they hit the camp hard." Kaidan raised his pistol. "It's a good place for an ambush. Keep your guard up..." I raised my pistol too. They could be waiting for us in any of the remaining buildings. There was a whir from those spikes. One of them lowered, and the body fell off. It was already twitching. Kaidan jumped back. "Oh God! They're still alive!" The... thing... got up, and stood there for a few moments, twitching. Ashley squinted at it. "What did the Geth _do_ to them?" The thing wasn't moving. I walked towards it. "Shepard, it could be dangerous!" It looked me right in the eye, screamed, and charged me. The other spikes were lowering. A few shots from my pistol, and the thing was dead. The other two things were charging at us. They dropped quick, too. I examined the bodies. There was nothing left of the human in them. Damn shame.

We searched one of the two remaining buildings. The first one had nothing, but then we came to the second. Ashley checked it. "It's closed, security lock's engaged. You know your way around this stuff?" I scanned the lock with my omnitool, and opened it in a few seconds. "I can do this kind of stuff in my sleep, please." To my surprise, there were surviving scientists inside.

The first one was pretty scared. "Humans! Thank the Maker!" The second one limped over. He seemed very nervous, and was hunched over slightly. "Hurry, close the door! Before they come back!" He exclaimed. I held my hands up. "Don't worry. We'll protect you." The first scientist sighed a sigh of relief. "Thank you. I think we'll be ok now. It looks like everyone's gone." Ashley spoke. "You're Dr. Warren, the one in charge of excavation right?" Dr. Warren nodded. "Do you know what happened to the beacon?" She looked at the other scientist for a moment. "It was moved to the spaceport this morning. Manuel and I stayed behind to help pack up the camp. When the attack came, the marines held them off long enough for us to hide. They gave their lives to save us..." Manuel interrupted suddenly. "No one is saved! The age of humanity is ended! Soon, only ruin and corpses will remain!" I looked over at Manuel, and of course I was genuinely concerned about him. "What's wrong with your assistant?" Dr. Warren scratched her arm. "Manuel has a brilliant mind, but he's always been a bit... unstable. Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin." Manuel interrupted again. "Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape? No hope? No, I am not mad! I'm the only sane one left!" I knew that he was fucking nuts, but something in my gut was telling me that he was right, to an extent. Dr. Warren rolled her eyes. "I gave him an extra dose of his meds after the attack." I guess it was best to get off the subject. "Did you notice a turian in the area?" Manuel answered me. "I saw him. The prophet! Leader of the enemy! He was here, before the attack!" Kaidan scoffed. "That's impossible. Nihlus was with us on the Normandy before the attack. He couldn't have been here." Dr. Warren interrupted him. "I'm sorry, Manuel's still a bit... unsettled. We haven't seen your turian. We've been hiding here since the attack." I turned to Ashley. "Williams, take us to the spaceport." Manuel spoke out, again. "You can't stop it! Nobody can stop it! Night is falling! The darkness of eternity!" Dr. Warren spoke sternly to Manuel. "Hush, Manuel. Go lie down, you'll feel better once the medication kicks in." Kaidan, Ashley and I left the building for the spaceport, leaving the two scientists there.

As we travelled down the path to the spaceport, we heard a gunshot ring out from in front of us. We raised our weapons. As the spaceport came into sight, I heard a sort of... roar... in the distance. We looked into the sky, and saw a massive ship taking off into the sky. It looked like the claw thing from the transmission. "What is that?! Off in the distance!" We all stood stunned for a moment. "It's a ship. Look at the size of it!" Holy shit. I've seen massive ships before, but none of them came close to this one. There were red bolts of electricity emitting from it as it ascended into the sky. We descended on the spaceport.

There were plenty of Geth there when we arrived. While Ashley kept them behind cover, Kaidan and I would flank around them. One of them tried charging me, but I fired a few more shots into it. It collapsed on the ground. Eventually, we had destroyed all the Geth in the immediate area. We went up the stairs, and found Nihlus on the ground. "Commander... it's Nihlus." I sighed. Dammit. I didn't know him long enough, but he still seemed like a good person, despite being a Spectre. Ashley raised her rifle. "Somethings moving, over behind the crates!" Kaidan and I raised our guns towards the crates. Fuck, more Geth? A worker came out. Thank God. "Wait! Don't-Don't shoot! I'm one of you! I'm human!" I lowered my gun. He didn't look like he could harm us. "Sneaking up on us like that nearly got you killed!" He began stammering. "I... I'm sorry. I was hiding from those creatures." He took a deep breath. "My name's Powell. I saw what happened to that turian. The other one shot him!" I looked at Nihlus' body for a moment. "I need to know how Nihlus died." "The other one got here first. He was waiting when your friend showed up. He called him... Saren, maybe? I think they knew each other." He began pacing behind the crates. "Your friend seemed to relax, so he let his guard down. And then... Saren killed him. Shot him right in the back. I'm just lucky he didn't see me." "Where'd Saren go after he killed Nihlus?" Powell pointed to the walkway towards the tram. "He jumped on the cargo train and headed over to the other platform. He's probably going after the beacon." He sighed. "I knew that beacon was trouble. Everything's gone to hell since we found it. First that damn mother ship showed up, then the attack..." I saw him begin to tear up. "They killed everyone... everyone! If I hadn't been behind the crates, I'd be dead, too!" I raised my eyebrow, and crossed my arms. "How come you're the only one who survived? Why didn't anyone else try to hide behind the crates, hm?" "They... they never had a chance. I was kinda already behind the crates when the attack began." Kaidan held his hands up. "Hold on, wait a minute. You were hiding behind the crates before the attack?" Powell seemed to become embarassed. "I... I sometimes need a nap to get through my shift. I sneak off behind the crates to grab forty winks where the supervisor can't find me." Ashley became angry. "You survived because you're _lazy_?!" I paced around myself. "If you hadn't snuck off for that nap, you'd probably be dead, just like all the others." He scratched the back of his head, and looked down. "Yeah... yeah, I guess. I don't really want to think about it." I turned to Kaidan and Ashley. "We need to find that beacon before it's too late!" Powell interrupted me. "Take the cargo train. That's where the other turian went." He began walking backwards. "I can't stay here. I need to get away from all this." He went behind the crates again. We made our way to the walkway to the train.

Shit. There were already Geth on the walkway. We began opening fire, and took a few down in a matter of seconds. There were even more down the ramp, including a couple of flying drones. It took us a while to destroy them, and I nearly took a rocket to the face. We went down the ramp, only to find more Geth on the walkway. Kaidan used his biotics to absolutely wreck a Destroyer, and we continued down the walkway, diving from cover to cover. Holy shit, I've run through so many thermal clips. My gun was already red from the heat. The Geth were eventually all downed, and we boarded the train. The console was locked, but it was extremely easy to hack. After I was done hacking, we took the train over to the next platform.

As the train pulled into the platform, a Geth unit started shooting at us, I got down, and after a few blind-fire shots, I killed it. It appeared to be working on some sort of device on the ground that looked like a... bomb? Kaidan inspected it for a second. "Holy shit! Demolition charges!" Ashley pulled out her sniper rifle. "Hurry! We need to find them and shut them all down!" I ran over to the device, and after cutting a few wires here and there, I shut it down. We moved up the ramp, and across the catwalk there were even more Geth. Kaidan and Ashley ducked down behind cover as I ran across the catwalk. Kaidan was lifting Geth out of cover with his biotics and letting Ashley pick them off in the air. This distracted the Geth long enough for me to deactivate two more charges. The other two caught up to me. "Commander, the other one's across the platform. Go, we'll cover you!" As more Geth came to stop us, we continued firing, and my gun began overheating again. Jesus, I haven't fought this much in a long time! Eventually, the Geth retreated, and I assumed they were regrouping. I disarmed the last one, and met up with Kaidan and Ashley. We went down the ramp to the beacon.

There were Geth around the platform, fiddling with those spikes. The spikes lowered, and allowed those "husk" things to begin charging us. We kept firing on them, but it seemed to be taking more rounds to take them down. What the fuck? Were they adapting or something? Eventually, those husk things were down, and the Geth began firing on us. After a fierce battle involving biotics, relatively large explosions, and enough gunfire to last a lifetime, the Geth were all dead on the ground, their coolants leaking out everywhere. The beacon was all lit up, with a light shining up into the sky. Kaidan and Ashley gazed at it as I contacted the Normandy. "Normandy, the beacon is secure. Request immediate evac." Captain Anderson responded. "Affirmative, Shepard. We'll be there shortly Shepard. Anderson out." I turned around, and heard Kaidan and Ashley talking about the beacon. "This is amazing! Actual working Prothean tech! Unbelievable!" Ashley slowly approached the beacon. "It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up..." Kaidan turned around, and walked over to me. "Commander, what do you think of this?" I shrugged. "Well-" The beacon flashed a green light, and Ashley was being pulled towards it by some sort of force. I pushed Kaidan out of the way, and grabbed hold of Ashley. I threw her behind me, and I began being pulled towards the beacon. It felt like some sort of force was entering my mind. The voices were back again, and speaking louder than ever. They started screaming, begging me to join them. I kept trying to push them out. The force lifted me up into the air. I began seeing images, the sights of machines butchering the galaxy. The deaths of entire civilizations, the mutilation of species. It was so strong I felt like I was going to die at any second. Ashley screamed behind me. "Shepard!" I heard Kaidan holding her back. "Don't touch him! It's too dangerous!" The visions got more intense as they went on. Then, the beacon exploded, and I was knocked back. I drifted out of consciousness as Kaidan and Ashley came over to me lying on the ground.


	4. Chapter 4: The Citadel

**Chapter 4: The Citadel**

 _February 5th, 2183_

 _Medical Bay, SSV Normandy SR1_

Holy fuck. My head hurts so fucking much. It feels like I was hit by a whole fucking warship. I felt really dizzy, and couldn't move. Then, slowly, I felt like I was waking up. The pain lowered down to a dull pain, and I had a slight headache now. I moved my head slightly. The bed I was on was pretty soft. Where was I...? I could hear Ashley across the room. "Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think he's waking up." I sat up slowly, my body aching all over.

I held my hands to my face. Holy fuck. This is the mother of all headaches. I looked to my right, and saw Chakwas coming over. She stood in front of me. "You had us worried there, Shepard. How are you feeling?" I rubbed my eyes again. "Minor throbbing, nothing serious... how long was I out?" "About fifteen hours. Something happened down there with the beacon, I think." I turned around, and saw Ashley shaking her head, her arms crossed. "It's my fault. I must've triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out of the way." "You had no way to know what would happen." I saw her smile slightly.

"Actually, we don't even know if that's what set it off. Unfortunately, we'll never get the chance to find out." Ashley uncrossed her arms, and stood next to Chakwas. "The beacon exploded. A system overload, maybe. The blast knocked you cold. The Lieutenant and I had to carry you back to the ship." I smiled a little bit. "I appreciate it." She smiled again. "Physically, you're fine. But I detected some unusal brain activity, such as abnormal beta waves." I got out of the bed, and leaned against it with my arms crossed. "I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement, signs typically associated with intense dreaming." I was. It was that nightmare again. So this nightmare I've been having is a warning of some kind? How, though? I'll probably never know, but that's fucking weird. "I saw-" I stopped myself for a moment. Don't talk about having it for years. That'll land you right back in the Recovery Center again. "I'm not sure what I saw. Death. Destruction. Nothing's really clear..." The dull pain started coming back, so I rubbed my face again. I closed my eyes to hold back tears. Chakwas spoke again. "Hmm... I better add this to my report. It may-" She stopped. "Oh, Captain Anderson!"

I thought I heard the door a little while ago. I heard him walk over to us. "How's our XO holding up, Doctor?" Chakwas shrugged. I could see the tiredness in her eyes. She must've been stressing pretty hard. I could've died, you know? "All the readings look normal. I'd say the Commander's going to be just fine." Anderson nodded. "Glad to hear it." He turned to face me. "Shepard, I need to speak with you-" He glared at the others. "-in private." Ashley saluted. "Aye-aye, Captain. I'll be in the mess if you need me." She walked away, and I heard the door open. Chakwas followed shortly behind her. Anderson relaxed a bit when they were both gone. "Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard, Commander. You sure you're ok?" I felt tears in my eyes. "Sir, I don't like soldiers dying under my command, and you know that. I let Jenkins die, and his death is on my hands. I should've gone ahead, not him." Anderson patted my on the back. "Jenkins wasn't your fault. You did a good job, Shepard. A damn good job."

I composed myself. "You said you needed to talk to me about something, Captain?" "I won't lie to you, Shepard. Things look bad. Nihlus is dead, the beacon was destroyed, and Geth are invading. The Council's going to want answers." "I didn't do anything wrong, Captain. Hopefully, the Council can see that." Anderson began pacing. "I'll stand behind you and your report, Shepard. You're a damned hero in my books, believe me. That's not why I'm here though. It's Saren, the other turian."

He stopped pacing, and was looking at a datapad on Chakwas' desk. "Saren's a Spectre, one of the best. A living legend, you could say. But if he's working with the Geth..." He turned back to me. "It means he's gone rogue." A look of worry came over him. "A rogue Spectre's trouble. Saren's dangerous, and he hates humans." I raised my eyebrow. "What? Why?" "He thinks we're growing too fast, taking over the galaxy the further we go. A lot of other species think that way, but most of them don't do anything about it. But Saren has allied himself with the Geth. I don't know how, I don't know why. I only know it had something to do with the beacon." He thought for a moment, and paced a little bit.

"You were there before the beacon self-destructed. Did you see anything? Any clue that might tell us what Saren was after?" I leaned on the medical bed again. "Just before I lost consciousness, I had some kind of vision." He began pacing back and forth in front of me. "A vision? A vision of what?" I looked down at the ground and shrugged. "I saw synthetics. Geth, maybe. Slaughtering people, butchering them." He looked me in the eye. "We need to report this to the Council, Shepard." I laughed nervously. "What are we gonna tell them? I had a bad dream? It won't work, sir." "We don't know what information was stored in that beacon. Lost Prothean technology? Blueprints for some ancient weapon of mass destruction? Whatever it was, Saren took it." He got angrier, and started pacing.

"But I know Saren. I know his reputation and his politics. He believes that humans are a blight on the galaxy. This attack was an act of war! He has the secrets from the beacon. He has an army of Geth at his command, and he won't stop until he's wiped humanity from the face of the galaxy!" He slammed his fist on the desk. He took a deep breath. I stopped leaning on the bed, and turned to face him. "Don't worry, sir. I'll find some way to take him down." He laughed. "It's not that easy. He's a Spectre. He can go anywhere, do almost anything, and that's why we need to try and get the Council on our side." I thought for a moment. "So, we prove Saren's gone rogue, and the Council will revoke his Spectre status!" Anderson nodded. "I'll contact the ambassador and see if he can get us an audience with the Council. He'll want to see us ass son as we reach the Citadel. We should be getting close. Head up to the bridge and tell Joker to bring us into dock." He turned around, and left me alone in the Medbay. After he left, I left too.

Ashley was waiting by the table in the mess hall outside. "Hey, Commander." I came over to talk to her. "I'm glad you're ok, Commander. The crew could use some good news after what happened to Jenkins." I nodded. "Jenkins was a valuable part of this crew." I didn't even really know Jenkins that well. Who was I to decide how valuable he was? She looked down at the ground, and seemed a little ashamed. "Part of me feels guilty over what happened. If Jenkins was still alive, I might not be here." "You're a good soldier, Williams. You belong on the Normandy." She shrugged. "Thanks, sir." I looked around for a moment. "Things were pretty rough down there. Are you ok?" "I've seen friends die before, comes with being a marine. But to see my whole unit wiped out... and you never get used to seeing dead civilians. But things would've been a lot worse if you hadn't showed up." I sighed. I know exactly how it feels to lose your unit. It hurts especially bad when they were your friends, too. I guess that's why Akuze hurt me so much emotionally. "We couldn't have done it without you, Williams." She smiled a little. "Thanks, Commander. I have to admit, I was a little worried about being assigned to the Normandy. It's nice when someone makes you feel welcome." I laughed a little. "I think you're going to fit in here just fine, Williams." "Thanks, Commander." She turned back to the mess table, and began finishing off her food. I walked up the stairs to CIC, and came up to Joker at the helm.

"Good timing, Commander. I was just about to bring us into the Citadel. See that taxpayer money at work." We entered the mass relay, and came out a few minutes later near the Citadel. Holy shit. I haven't been here in a long time. It's still just as beautiful and powerful as ever. The many ships surrounding it. The glow of the station. I remember it all. Ashley and Kaidan came up here, and looked out the window in awe. "Look at the size of that ship!" Ashley exclaimed. Kaidan looked out the window. "The Ascension. Flagship of the Citadel Fleet." Joker laughed. "Well, size isn't everything. you know?" Ashley looked back at him. "Why so touchy, Joker?" He glared at her. "I'm just saying you need firepower, too." The Ascension is fucking massive, holy shit. "Look at that monster! It's main gun could rip through the barriers on any ship in the Alliance fleet!" "Good thing it's on our side, then." I heard Joker open comms with the Citadel. "Citadel Control, this is SSV Normandy requesting permission to land." There was a pause as we maneuvered around some ships. "Stand by for clearance, Normandy." Again, another pause. "Clearance granted. You may begin your approach. Transferring you to an Alliance operator." I turned away from the window, and stood next to Joker. The comms switched to Alliance Tower. "Normandy, this is Alliance Tower. Please proceed to Dock 422." "Roger, Alliance Tower. Normandy out." The comms shut, and Joker flew us into dock.

Kaidan, Ashley and I were looking over the balcony of the human embassy into the presidum below. The Presidium was beautiful. Trees, grass, even small lakes and a simulated blue sky. Even when I came to the Citadel years ago I never came here. However, all that beauty was interrupted by Ambassador Udina arguing with the Council on the visual comms. "This is an outrage! The Council would step in if the Geth attacked a turian colony!" I sighed. The Salarian Councilor spoke to Udina. "The turians don't found colonies on the broders of the Terminus Systems, Ambassador." The Asari Councilor sighed. "Humanity was well aware of the risks when you went into the Traverse." Udina was breathing heavily, and was pretty angry. "What about Saren?! You can't just ignore a rogue Spectre! I demand action!" The Turian Conucilor raised his voice. "You don't get to make demands of the Council, Ambassador." "Citadel Security is investigating your charges against Saren. We will discuss the C-Sec findings at the hearing, not before." The Council shut off communications. Udina came over to us.

"Captain Anderson. I see you brought half your crew with you." Anderson pointed to us. "Just the ground team from Eden Prime, in case you had any questions." I turned to face Udina. He was pissed alright. "I have the mission reports. I assume they're accurate?" "They are. Sounds like you convinced the Council to give us an audience." Udina crossed his arms. "They were not happy about it. Saren's their top agent, they don't like him being accused of treason." I decided to speak. "Saren's a threat to every human colony out there. He needs to be stopped! The Council has to listen to us!" Geez, I sounded angry enough myself. Tone it down, Shepard. Even Udina agreed. "Settle down, Commander. You've already done more than enough to jeopardize your candidacy for the Spectres. The mission on Eden Prime was a chance to prove you could get the job done. Instead, Nihlus ended up dead and the beacon was destroyed!" I shook my head, and looked away for a moment. Damn. "That's Saren's fault, not his!" Thanks, Anderson, I guess. "Then we better hope the C-Sec investigation turns up evidence to support our accustations. Otherwise, the Council might use this as an excuse to keep you out of the Spectres." He turned to Anderson. "Come with me, Captain. I want to go over a few things before the hearing." He turned back to me. "Shepard, you and the others can meet us at the Citadel Tower, top level. I'll make sure you have clearance to get in." Udina and Anderson left the embassy, leaving me and the other two alone. Ashley stood next to me, and shook her head. "And that's why I hate politicians." I nodded. "Same here."

Before we left, I noticed an unattended computer that was left on. I took a look at it before we left. What's this? Unusual energy readings during a patrol of the Argos Rho Cluster? I should probably forward this to Anderson later. I uploaded the file onto my omnitool. We left the embassy for the Citadel Tower.

When we arrived in the tower, there were a couple of turians arguing up ahead. One of them looked like a C-Sec officer, while the other seemed to be the turian executor. The C-Sec officer was begging for something. "Saren's hiding something! Give me more time, stall them or something!" The executor shook his head. "Stall the Council? Don't be ridiculous. Your investigation is over, Garrus." The executor walked away. The C-Sec officer sighed, and looked at us. He came over. "Commander Shepard? Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the C-Sec investigation into Saren." I looked behind me, and looked back at Garrus. "Who were you just talking to?" "That was Executor Pallin, head of C-Sec, my boss. He'll be presenting my findings on Saren to the Council." I nodded, and looked at Kaidan, then Ashley. "Sounds like you really want to bring Saren down." He crossed his arms and began pacing. "I don't trust him. Something about him rubs me the wrong way. But he's a Spectre. Everything he touches is classified, so I can't find any hard evidence against him." Kaidan tapped me on the shoulder. "I think the Council's ready for us, Commander." Garrus nodded. "Good luck, Shepard. Maybe they'll listen to you..." He walked behind us, and into the elevator. We walked up the many flights of steps towards the Council.

Captain Anderson was waiting for us at the bottom of the last flight of stairs. He seemed impatient. "The hearing's already started, come on." We climbed up the flight of stairs, and took our place on the platform in front of the Council. A visual comm with Saren had already been establish, and Udina was waiting for us. The Asari Councilor was already talking. "...the Geth attack is a matter of some concern, but there is nothing to indicate that Saren was involved in any way." The Turian Councilor turned his head away from the Councilor and towards Udina. "The investigation by Citadel Security has turned up no evidence to support your charge of treason." Udina got pissed. "An eyewitness saw him kill Nihlus in cold blood!" The Salarian Councilor spoke up. "We've read the Eden Prime reports, Ambassador. The testimony of one traumatized dockworker is hardly compelling proof." Saren decided to step into the argument. "I resent these accusations. Nihlus was a fellow Spectre, and a friend." Sure, sure he was, you lying, two-faced bastard. I can't wait to get my fucking hands on you.

Anderson pointed at him in accusation. "That just let you catch him off guard!" Saren looked at him. "Captain Anderson, you always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me. And this must be your protege, Commander Shepard. The one who let the beacon get destroyed. I've read up on you, Commander. You let your unit die on Akuze, Shepard. I'm a little disappointed." Fuck you, asshole. I can't wait to slit your throat. Calm down, Shepard. Don't get violent. You'll become worse than him. "The mission to Eden Prime was top secret. The only way you could know about the beacon was if you were there!" Saren shook his head. "With Nihlus dead, his files passed onto me. I read the Eden Prime report. I was just as unimpressed with that as your Akuze report." Fuck. I heard the voices acting up again. Telling me to die. To join them. I shut them out. What the fuck. Saren is tossing Akuze around like it's my fault 54 men died. At least I didn't kill my own allies...

"But then again, what can you expect from a human?" I leaned forward. "Saren despises humanity. That's why he attacked Eden Prime!" Saren sighed. "Your species needs to learn its place, Shepard. You're not ready to join the Council. You're not even ready to join the Spectres!" Udina decided to speak up for me. "He has no right to say that! That's not his decision!" The Asari Councilor stopped us. "Shepard's admission into the Spectres is not the purpose of this meeting." Saren snorted. "This meeting has no purpose. The humans are wasting your time, Councilors, and mine as well." I raised my voice. "Saren's hiding behind his position as a Spectre to cover his tracks! You need to open your eyes!" The Salarain Councilor interrupted me. "What we need is evidence. So far, we've seen nothing."

Anderson spoke. "There is still one outstanding issue, Councilors: Commander Shepard's vision. It may have been triggered by the beacon." Saren chuckled sarcastically. "Are we allowing dreams into evidence now? How can I defend my innocence against this kind of testimony?" The Turian Councilor looked away from Saren and back at us. "I agree. Our judgment must be based on facts and evidence, not wild imaginings and reckless speculation." The Salarian Councilor turned to me. "Do you have anything else to add, Commander Shepard?" I shook my head. "You've made your decision already. I won't waste my breath." The Councilors looked at each other, shaking their heads at each other. The Asari Councilor spoke. "The Council has found no evidence of any connection between Saren and the Geth. Ambassador, your petition to have him disbarred from the Spectres is denied." Saren looked at us smugly. "I'm glad to see justice was served." He closed off communications. "This meeting is adjourned." The Councilors filed out, and all of us left except for Udina. He stood there looking at the ground, clearly disappointed by what had just happened.

We all met further in the back of the Tower. Udina was pretty angry. "It was a mistake bringing you into that hearing, Captain. You and Saren have too much history. It made the Council question our motives." Anderson faced me. "I know Saren. He's working with the Geth for one reason: to exterminate the entire human race!" He started pacing. Oh boy, here we go. "Every colony we have is at risk. Every world we control is in danger. Even Earth isn't safe!" The thoughts of Philly burning up in flames crossed my mind. Do you really want that to happen, Lucas? Do you want your home destroyed? "First, Captain, tell me about this history between you and Saren. I need to know what's going on." The Captain paced a bit again. "I worked with him on a mission along time ago. Things went bad, real bad. We shouldn't talk about this here. But I know what he's like, and he has to be stopped!" I nodded. "We need to deal with Saren ourselves." Udina held his hand to his chin. "As a Spectre, he's virtually untouchable. We need to find some way to expose him."

Kaidan spoke up. "What about Garrus, that C-Sec investigator? We saw him arguing with the executor, remember?" Ashley spoke after him. "That's right! He was asking for more time to finish his report. Seems like he was close to finding something on Saren." I turned to face Udina. "Any idea where we could find him, Ambassador?" He looked around for a moment. "I have a contact in C-Sec who can help us track Garrus down. His name is Harkin." Anderson seemed repulsed, and began shaking his head immediately. "Forget it. They suspended Harkin last month, drinking on the job. I won't waste my time with that loser." Udina crossed his arms. "You won't have to, Captain. I don't want the Council using your past history with Saren as an excuse to ignore anything we turn up. Shepard will handle this, not you." What authority does he have over the Captain? The Ambassador isn't Navy. He can't just command him around! "Hey, hey! You can't just cut Captain Anderson out of this investigation!" Anderson sighed. "The Ambassador's right. I need to step aside." He seemed sad, but he knew he was right. After some silence, Udina spoke. "I need to take care of some business. Captain, meet me in my office later." Udina walked off. Anderson looked back at us after watching Udina leave.

"Harkin's probably getting drunk at Chora's Den. It's a dingy little club in the lower section of the wards." The wards. I remember too much from back then. Krag, the gangs, Larus. I kinda miss them, to be honest. But the wards bring back too many memories. I shrugged. "Maybe there's another way to find evidence against Saren?" Anderson thought for a moment. "You should talk to Barla Von over in the Financial District. Rumor has it that he's an agent for the Shadow Broker." Ashley spoke. "The 'Shadow Broker'?" Anderson looked at her. "An information dealer. Buys and sells secrets to the highest bidder. I've heard Barla Von's one of his top representatives. He might know something about Saren, but his information won't come cheap." I nodded towards the exit. "I should go look. I'll see you around, Captain." Anderson smiled. "Good luck, Shepard. I'll be over in the Ambassador's office if you need anything else." He turned and left, and we began moving towards the exit. That's when we saw a Salarian examining a Keeper.

When he saw us, he stopped. We came over to him. "Um, yes. Is there something you want?" I raised my eyebrow. "Why are you so interested in the Keepers?" He shrugged. "Keepers? I've got no interest in the-" Ashley interrupted him. "Don't get coy. I know what I saw." The Salarain got nervous, and was rubbing his hands. "I... uh... I'm not so sure I should be talking to you about this..." "Just tell me what you're doing. I'm not here to get you in trouble, ok?" He seemed to relax a little. "Alright. I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you. I'm using a small scanner to gather readings on the keepers." He wiped some sweat from his forehead. "So far, I've had mixed results. I find it difficult to get near the creatures." I raised my eyebrow again. "Why were you being so secretive about it, though?" He looked around. "Well, technically, we're not supposed to 'disturb' the Keepers. I don't really think my scanning disturbs them, but the authorities might disagree. I'd like to do it more openly, but it's not really worth getting arrested over." Aw hell. This guy is clearly innocent. "I could help you out. I'm not worried about the authorities." "I don't even know who you are." "I'm Commander Shepard, with the Alliance Navy." His face lit up. " _The_ Commander Shepard! Oh man! I read all about you on the news about Akuze!" He calmed down a little. "I'm sorry. It's kind of rare to see someone famous, especially when they ask to help you." He handed me the device. "You'll need this. It's the scanning device I developed. Activate it each time you see a Keeper. All collected data will automatically upload to my database. I'll even send a few credits your way for each unique scan." I shrugged. "I should get going, then." He waved as I left. "It's nice meeting you, Commander!"

Oh well, there's a Keeper right here. Let's get started. I held out the scanner, and I felt it buzz in my hands. A green light showed. Nice. I stowed it away, and we walked towards the exit.


	5. Chapter 5: Evidence

**Chapter 5: Evidence**

 _Chora's Den_

After a relatively long walk through the wards, and of course a few memories, we arrived at Chora's Den. The sign was glowing in the image of an Asari woman, and it clearly said "Chora's Den". There were a couple of shady-looking turians outside of the entrance. I saw them whisper to each other as they watched us come onto the walkway to the club. After a while, they pulled out rifles and began firing at us. We dived into cover, and drew our own weapons. It was hard to get a shot over at them, but every now and then I fired my pistol over the top. Ashley threw a grenade across the way, and it landed amongst them. They tried to scatter from the grenade, but they were knocked on the ground. I leaned around the corner, and shot one still on the ground in the head. Kaidan lifted the other with his biotics, and threw him over the edge of the walkway. We put away our weapons, and came over to the other body. Kaidan nudged the body with his boot. "I bet those were Saren's men..." I nodded. "You're probably right. Let C-Sec find the bodies, let's keep moving." We entered the club.

Kaidan noticed the Asari "dancers" on the platform above the bar the moment we entered the bar. "I can see why this place is so popular. It's got quite the... uh... view." Ashley glared at him, and scolded him. "Hey, Lieutenant. Put your tongue back in your mouth before you trip on it." We went around the circular bar, and saw the krogan bouncer arguing with another krogan. He looked like a bounty hunter. "Back off, Wrex. Fist told us to take you down if you showed up." The bounty hunter chuckled. "What are you waiting for? I'm standing right here. This is Fist's only chance. If he's smart, he'll take it." The bouncer pushed him back. "He's not coming out, Wrex. End of story." Wrex leaned in close to him. "This story is just beginning." As he walked away, he shoved us aside. "Out of my way, humans. I have no quarrel with you." The fuck? Kaidan looked back at him as he walked away. "What was that all about?" Ashley shrugged. "Who knows? Let's just try not to get caught in the middle?" I was ready to just leave, but then I noticed Harkin watching us. We came over to his table.

"Alliance military. Hmph. I coulda been a marine, you know. Instead I joined the goddamned Citadel Security. Biggest fucking mistake of my life." He took a drink. "Harkin, right? I was told you could help me find someone." I sat down at the chair across from him. "I need to find a turian C-Sec officer, name's Garrus." Harkin laughed. "Garrus? You must be one of Captain Anderson's crew. Poor bastard's still trying to bring Saren down, eh?" He looked around, checking that there was no one nearby. "I know where Garrus is, but you gotta tell me something first. Did the Captain let you in on his big secret?" I leaned in. "Is there something I should know about the Captain?" He lowered his voice. "The Captain used to be a Spectre. Didn't know that, did you?" He took another drink. "It was all very hush-hush. The first human ever given that honor, and then he blew it. Screwed up his mission so bad they kicked him out. Of course, he blames Aren, says the turian set him up." He took yet another drink. I'm not even sure I should believe him to be honest. He seems a little too drunk to be telling the truth. I sighed. "Just tell me where Garrus went." He pointed towards the exit. "Garrus was sniffing around Dr. Michel's office. She runs the med clinic on the other side of the wards. Last I heard, he was going back there." I turned to leave. "I'm outta here." As we left, I heard him mutter under his breath, "Yeah, good, go. Let me drink in peace."

When we were out of the club, Ashley began talking. "Why didn't the Captain tell us he used to be a Spectre?" Kaidan responded. "Maybe it's not true. Harkin's an ass. I bet he's just messing with our heads." Ashley sighed. "You're probably right. Still, I'd like to hear what the Captain has to say about all this."

* * *

 _Dr. Michel's Clinic_

After a long walk, we arrived at the clinic. There was yelling coming from inside, so we drew our guns. I opened the door. Inside, I saw Garrus ducking behind a wall, pistol drawn. Across the clinic, Dr. Michel was being harassed by some thugs. Reminds me a bit of home. "I didn't tell anyone, I swear!" "That was smart, doc. Now, if Garrus comes around, you stay smart. Keep your mouth shut, or we'll-" The thugs noticed me, and drew their guns on me. One of them grabbed Dr. Michel, and began using her like a shield. "Who are you?!" We aimed our guns at them. "Let her go!" Garrus came out of his cover, and shot the thug holding Dr. Michel. She screamed, and ran back behind a turned over medical bed. Garrus ran across the room to her, and kept her down. Immediately, we began firing on the thugs. I had overloaded their shields within a few seconds, and eventually they were decimated by grenades and gunfire. When we were done, their bodies were scattered about the room, and everything was out of order. Garrus and Dr. Michel came out of their cover.

"Perfect timing, Shepard. Gave me a clear shot at that bastard." I gave Garrus a little shove. "What were you thinking?! You could've hit the hostage!" "There wasn't time to think! I just reacted! I didn't mean to-" He checked over Dr. Michel for a moment. "Are you hurt?" She wiped a little blood off of her clothes. "No, I'm ok, thanks to you. All of you." I turned to her. "I know those men threatened you, but if you tell us who they work for, we can protect you." "They work for Fist. They wanted to shut me up, keep me from telling Garrus about the quarian." Quarian? Here? That's pretty rare. I've only seen one my entire life. "What quarian?" Dr. Michel began pacing. "A few days ago, a quarian came into my office. She'd been shot, but she wouldn't tell me who did it. I could tell she was scared. She was probably on the run. She asked about the Shadow Broker. She wanted to trade information in exchange for a safe place to hide." The Shadow Broker? Shit. I remember encountering some of his "employees" when I came here for the first time. In fact, I had turned to the Shadow Broker first to find my brother. Unfortunately, we never came to a deal.

"Where is she now?" "I put her in contact with Fist. He's an agent for the Shadow Broker." Garrus interrupted. "Not anymore. Now he works for Saren, and the Shadow Broker? Not too happy about it." Fuck. Sending her to Fist would be a death sentence then. "Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker? That's stupid, even for him. Saren must've made him quite the offer." Garrus thought for a moment. "That quarian must have something Saren wants, something worth crossing the Shadow Broker to get." I crossed my arms, and paced for a while. "Hm... she must have something to prove that he's a traitor! Did the quarian mention anything about Saren or the Geth?" "She did! The information she was going to trade, she said it had something to do with the Geth." "She must be able to link Saren to the Geth. There's no way the Council can ignore this!" I smiled slightly. "Time we paid Fist a visit."

As we were about to turn to leave, Garrus stopped us. "This is your show, Shepard, but I want to bring Saren down as much as you do. I'm coming with you." I looked to Kaidan and Ashley for a moment. "Welcome aboard, Garrus." "You know, we aren't the only ones going after Fist. The Shadow Broker hired a krogan bounty hunter named Wrex to take him out." Ashley looked at me. "Yeah, we saw him in the bar, remember?" I remembered Krag. He was probably the best fighter I've ever seen. "A krogan might come in handy." "Last I heard he was at C-Sec Academy." Kaidan stepped forward and spoke. "What's he doing there?" "Fist accused him of making threats. We brought Wrex in for a little talk. If you hurry, you can catch him at the Academy before he leaves." I pointed towards the door. "Let's move out." But before we left, I stopped Ashley. "Head back to the Normandy." She saluted. "Aye-aye, Commander." We left, Kaidan, Garrus and I walking towards C-Sec Academy, Ashley going back to the Normandy.

* * *

 _C-Sec Academy_

"I used to have an office here. Spent half my time doing paperwork, though. It wasn't fun." We came to the center of C-Sec Academy. There were many C-Sec officers around, and Wrex was at the other end of the room. We drew closer to him. One of the C-Sec officers near him was interrogating him. "Witnesses saw you making threats in Fist's bar. Stay away from him." Wrex came close to him. "I don't take orders from you." The C-Sec officer leaned in, too. "This is your only warning, Wrex." "You should warn Fist. I _will_ kill him." The C-Sec officer backed off for a moment. "You want me to arrest you?" Wrex laughed. "I want you to try." He began walking towards us. The officers called over to him. "Go on, get out of here."

Wrex stopped and looked at us. "Do I know you, human?" "My name's Shepard, Lucas Shepard. I'm going after Fist, and I thought you might want to come along." Wrex snorted. "Shepard? Commander Shepard? I've heard a lot about you. I heard about what happened on Akuze. You have to be tough to survive a horde of thresher maws alone." He came in close, and whispered to me. "I knew your old buddy, Krag. He and I used to be drinking buddies. He talked about you a lot." He stepped back. "Until he died, of course." I raised my eyebrow, and crossed my arms. "How'd you know he was talking about me?" Wrex laughed. "Too easy. I just had to do some searching. 'Ryan Costov' never really existed. Everything I could dig up came back to a young human boy with no parents, and his name certainly wasn't 'Ryan Costov'." I leaned in closer. "Is 'Ryan Costov' still wanted by C-Sec?" "The case has been cold for years. C-Sec never found you." Garrus came into the conversation. "Shepard, if you want, I can make 'Ryan Costov' disappear, and the case will have officially never happened."

I shook my head. "No, but thanks. I'd rather make it a surprise when C-Sec finds out." "Your choice, Shepard." Wrex began pacing. "We're both warriors, Shepard. Out of respect, I'll give you a fair warning." He came back in close. "I'm going to kill Fist." Garrus came in again. "Fist knows you're coming. We'll have a better chance if we all work together." "My people have a saying, something like this. 'Seek the enemy of your enemy, and you will find a friend.'" I shook Wrex's hand. "Glad to have you on the team then, Wrex." Wrex stretched out for a moment. "Let's go, I hate to keep Fist waiting." I looked at Kaidan. "Kaidan, I want you back on the Normandy." He saluted. "Yes, sir." He left through one of the elevators. Wrex, Garrus and I began making our way towards Chora's Den.

* * *

 _Chora's Den_

The area felt unusually empty. When we actually reached the entrance to the bar, Garrus drew his sniper rifle. "Looks like it's shut down. We better be ready." Wrex drew his shotgun, and I drew my pistol. "Fist knows we're coming." The entrance was locked. After overloading it with my omnitool, the door opened. Immediately, we were being sprayed by gunfire. We took cover near the door. However, once we began throwing grenades in, the gunfire slowed down. We began moving into the bar. Wrex was throwing thugs around with his biotics, and Garrus was at a distance picking thugs off faster than they could come. Using incineration programs and such on my omnitool, I was in my element. Burning thugs never gets old. Same with shocking him with enough electricity to put him out for a few minutes. We made our way around the bar, eliminating every thug in our way. Reminds me of old times, you know? I almost expected Finch to be fighting right alongside us. Eventually, the bouncer came charging at us. We all focused fire on him, but he just wouldn't fall. I had to shock him more than usual to make sure he stayed down. But even then, he didn't stay down. He got back up, but I just kicked him across the face and put a bullet in his brain. At the other end of the room was the hallway to Fist's hideout. There were only a couple of thugs down there. I shot a Fire Containment system down the hall, and it exploded, killing both thugs. We ran to the door, and opened it.

When we got the door open, there were some workers aiming pistols at us. "Stop right there! Don't come any closer!" Garrus looked at me. "Warehouse workers? All the real guards must be dead." "Stay back, or we'll shoot!" I lowered my pistol. "This would be a good time to find somewhere else to work." They holstered their pistols. "Yeah, yeah. Right. That's a good idea." A couple of them walked off. "Yeah, I never liked Fist anyway." The last one walked off. Wrex glared at me. "It would've been quicker to just kill them." Garrus scolded him "Shooting people isn't always the answer, Wrex." I nodded, and we continued into the final room.

Fist was waiting for us when we entered. When he saw us, he sighed. "Why do I have to do everything myself? Time to die, little soldiers!" He drew his rifle, dived into cover, and activated two defense turrets on either side of his little lounge here. While we stayed behind cover, I scanned one of the turrets with my omnitool. Nearly got my head taken off, too. After breaking its firewalls, I changed its progamming and made the other turret it's target. The turrets destroyed each other, and when Fist popped up, Garrus got him in the shoulder. He was lying on the ground, bleeding to death.

"Wait! Don't kill me! I surrender!" I crouched down and held my pistol to his head. "Where's the quarian?" He held his hands up. "She's not here. I don't know where she is, that's the truth!" Wrex shoved me aside. "He's no use to you now. Let me kill him." Fist covered his face with his hands. "Wait! Wait! I don't know where the quarian is right now, but I know where you might be able to find her! Might!" I held my pistol closer to his face. "Where?" He pressed down on the rifle wound on his shoulder. "The quarian isn't here. She said she'd only deal with the Shadow Broker himself." Wrex shook his head. "Face to face? Impossible! Even I was hired through an agent." Still holding his wound, Fist raised himself up. "Nobody meets the Shadow Broker. Hell, even I don't know his true identity. But she didn't know that, so I told her I'd set a meeting up." He groaned in pain. "But when she shows up, it'll be Saren's men waiting for her." Fucking bastard.

I grabbed him by the armor, specifically putting more pressure on his wound. "Give me the location! Now!" I let go of him, and he groaned more. "It's going down in a back alley near the markets. She's supposed to be meeting them right about now. You can make it..." he smiled. "...if you hurry." I heard Wrex pull his shotgun. He emptied a shell into Fist, and he was knocked over. He still wasn't dead, but he was out cold. Wrex pumped his shotgun, but I pushed him away. Garrus yelled at Wrex. "What are you doing?!" Wrex put away his shotgun. "The Shadow Broker paid me to kill him. I don't leave jobs half done." I sighed. "We don't shoot unarmed prisoners, Wrex!" Wrex came closer to me, clearly getting more pissed. "How many people died because of him? He brought this on himself. Besides, we have more pressing concerns." Garrus tapped me on the shoulder. "That quarian's dead if we don't go now!" I nodded. I grabbed an OSD from Fist's computer, and we ran out.

* * *

 _Behind the Markets_

Fuck. We only have a couple minutes. We already wasted enough time getting here. The alley was dimly lit. We drew our weapons when we heard talking up ahead. I ducked down behind a crate, and watched. There she was, and there were a few of Saren's men, too. One of them was talking to the quarian. "Did you bring it?" He was walking towards her. "Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?" She sounded young. Damn. Too young to be getting into this kind of trouble. The assassin began feeling her up. "They'll be here. Where's the evidence?" She slapped his hand off of her. "No way. The deal's off." The other assassins drew their weapons, and began closing in on her. There was something in her hand. Was that a... grenade? She threw it at them, and it exploded quicker than I expected it to explode. She ducked down behind a crate near us, and we came up over our cover. I overloaded the assassins' shields, and within no time they were dead.

The quarian came over to us. "Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him!" I visually inspected her for a moment. "Were you hurt in the fight?" "I know how to look after myself. Not that I don't appreciate the help. Who are you?" "My name's Lucas Shepard," I said. I pointed to Garrus and Wrex. "He's Garrus, and the krogan is Wrex. We're looking for evidence to prove Saren's a traitor." She thought for a moment. "Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life. But not here, though. We need to go somewhere safe." Garrus spoke up. "We could take her to the human embassy. Your ambassador will want to see this, anyway." I nodded. "Come with us." I beckoned to her, and we began making our way back to the embassy.

* * *

 _Human Embassy_

Ambassador Udina was looking over the balcony, and Captain Anderson was using a computer when we arrived. "You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the wards? An all-out assault on Chora's Den?" He turned around, anger in his eyes. "Do you know how many-" He stopped, and looked at the quarian. "Who's this? A quarian?" He glared at me. "Just what are you up to, Shepard?" I smiled. "Making your day, Ambassador. She has information linking Saren to the Geth."

A look of surprise came over Udina. "Really?" He turned to the quarian. "Maybe you better start at the beginning, Miss...?" "My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." I noticed that Udina seemed a little suspicious. "We don't see many quarians here. Why did you leave the Flotilla?" "I was on my Pilgrimage, my rite of passage into adulthood." I looked over at Tali. "What'd you find?" She looked away from Udina, and at me. "During my travels, I began hearing reports of Geth incursions. Since they drove my people into exile, the Geth have never ventured beyond the Veil. Of course, I was curious. I tracked a patrol of Geth to an uncharted world. I waited for one to become separated from its unit, then I disabled it and removed its memory core." Wow. Goddamn, she's good. Anderson came into the conversation. "I thought the Geth fried their memory cores when they died, some kind of defense mechanism or something." I looked back at Tali. "How did you manage to preserve the memory core?" "My people created the Geth. If you're quick, careful, and lucky, small caches of data can sometimes be saved. Most of the core was wiped clean, but I salvaged something from its audio banks." She opened her omnitool, and opened a recording. It was Saren speaking.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." I knew it. I fucking knew it. Anderson understood it as well. "That's Saren's voice! This proves that he was involved in the attack!" I nodded. "Saren won't get out of this one, sir." Tali interrupted us. "Wait... there's more. Saren wasn't working alone..." She repeated the recording, but it was extended. "Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." Then, another voice spoke after him. "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." A woman's voice? Sounded human or asari, who knows. Udina crossed his arms. "I don't recognize that other voice, the one talking about 'Reapers'." Wait. That sounded familiar. Did I hear it before? "I feel like I've heard that name before..." Tali turned to me. "According to the memory core, the Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago." She began looking around to everyone. "The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction, and then they vanished. At least, that's what the Geth believe." Udina sighed. "Sounds a little far-fetched." I felt a little dizzy. "The vision on Eden Prime, I understand it now." Anderson looked at me, eyebrow raised. "What does it mean, Shepard?" I held my head for a moment. "I saw the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers."

There was a moment of silence until Tali decided to break uit. "The Geth revere the Reapers as gods, the pinnacle of non-organic life, and they believe Saren knows how to bring the Reapers back." Udina began shaking his head, and crossed his arms again. "Oh, the Council is just going to _love_ this..." I looked at him. "The Reapers are a threat to every species in Citadel space, we have to tell them!" Anderson spoke next. "No matter what they think about the rest of this, those audio files prove Saren's a traitor!" Udina nodded. "The Captain's right. We need to present this to the Council right away." Saren sure isn't getting out of this one. Wrex pointed to Tali. "What about her? The quarian?" She glared at him. "My name is Tali!" She turned to look at me. "You saw me in the alley, Commander. You know what I can do. Let me come with you." I mean, she isn't wrong. She's good, and I'm definitely going to need her later. "I'll take all the help I can get. Welcome aboard." I couldn't see it behind her mask, but I could tell she was smiling. "Thanks, you won't regret this." Udina spoke to all of us. "Anderson and I will go ahead and to get things ready with the Council. Take a few minutes to collect yourselves, then meet us in the Tower." Udina left the embassy, and Anderson was shortly behind.


	6. Chapter 6: Succession

**Chapter 6: Succession**

 _Citadel Tower_

 _A few hours later..._

Anderson was already waiting for us at the last flight of stairs to the Council. "Come on, Udina's presenting the quarian's evidence to the Council." Anderson joined us as we climbed up the stairs. As we approached the stand, the Council was already listening to the recording. As the recording finished, Anderson and I stood behind Udina. "You wanted proof? There it is." The turian councilor nodded. "This evidence is irrefutable, Ambassador. Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts will be made to bring him in to answer for his crimes." The asari councilor thought for a moment. "I recognize the other voice, the one speaking Saren. It's Matriarch Benezia." I sighed. "She must be working with the Geth, too." "Matriarch Benezia is a powerful biotic, and she had many followers. She will make a formidable ally for Saren."

The salarian councilor interrupted. "I'm more interested in the Reapers. What do you know about them?" Captain Anderson spoke for me. "Only what was extracted from the Geth's memory core. The Reapers were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans, then they vanished." I continued what he was saying. "The Geth believe the Reapers are gods, and Saren is the prophet for their return." "We think the Conduit is the key to bringing them back. Saren's searching for it, and that's why he attacked Eden Prime." The salarian councilor presented another question. "Do we even know what this Conduit is?"

"Saren thinks it can bring back the Reapers, and that's bad enough." The turian councilor entered the conversation. "Listen to what you're saying! Saren wants to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible, it has to be. Where did the Reapers go? Why did they vanish? How come we've found no trace of their existence? If they were real, we'd have found something!" I could feel my face getting hotter as I became more frustrated. "I tried to warn you about Saren, and you refused to face the truth. Don't make the same mistake again." The asari councilor answered this time. "This is different. You proved Saren betrayed the Council. We all agree he's using the Geth to search for the Conduit, but we don't really know why." The salarian councilor talked after her. "The Reapers are obviously just a myth, Commander. A convenient lie to cover Saren's true purpose. A legend he is using to bend the Geth to his will."

I leaned forward on the railing. "50,000 years ago, the Reapers wiped out all galactic civilization. If Saren finds the Conduit, it will happen again!" Jesus, the Council is so dense. The turian councilor shook his head. "Saren is a rogue agent on the run for his life. He no longer has the rights or resources of a Spectre. We the Council has stripped him of his position." Ambassador Udina became frustrated enough to start yelling. "That is not good enough! You know he's hiding somewhere in the Traverse! Send your fleet in!" The salarian councilor responded. "A fleet cannot track down one man." Udina sighed. "A Citadel fleet could secure the entire region, and keep the Geth from attacking any more of our colonies!" The turian councilor continued the argument. "Or it could trigger a war with the Terminus Systems! We won't be dragged into a galactic confrontation over a few dozen human colonies!" It's been a while since I've gotten this mad. "Every time huamnity asks for help, you ignore us!" Udina pointed to me. "Shepard's right! I'm sick of this Council and its anti-human bull-" The crowds above started gasping. The asari councilor stopped him. "Ambassador! There is another solution, a way to stop Saren that does not require fleets or armies." She looked over at the turian councilor. "Wait, no! It's too soon! Humanity is not ready for the responsibilities that come with joining the Spectres." I shrugged. "You don't have to send a fleet into the Traverse, and the Ambassador gets his human Spectre. Everybody's happy, right?"

The councilors looked among each other, nodding in approval. They typed something into the consoles in front of them. The asari councilor spoke to me. "Commander Shepard, step forward." Everyone was watching me. Oh great. I stepped forward as Udina stepped back. Anderson nodded at me, and smiled. There was whispering from the balconies above. Oh boy. "It is the decision of the Council that you be granted all the powers and privleges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel." The salarian councilor spoke next. "Spectres are not trained, but chosen. Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle, those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file." The asari councilor spoke again. "Spectres are an ideal, a symbol. The embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will." The turian councilor spoke last. "Spectres bear a great burdern. They are protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last lines of defense. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold." The asari councilor spoke one last time. "You are the first human Spectre, Commander. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species." I bowed. "I'm honored, Councilor." The salarian councilor spoke. "We're sending you into the Traverse after Saren. He's a fugitive from justice, so you are authorized to use any means necessary to apprehend or eliminate him." I nodded. "I'll find him." "This meeting is adjourned." As the Council filed out, Udina, Anderson, Tali, Garrus, and everyone in the balconies started clapping. Wow. So this is how far a small gang boy from Philadelphia can come.

After everyone was done, I turned to Udina and Anderson. I shook Anderson's hand. "Congratulations, Commander." Udina crossed his arms. "We've got a lot of work to do, Shepard. You're going to need a ship, a crew, supplies..." Anderson kept talking. "You'll get access to special equipment and training now. You should go down to the C-Sec Academy and speak to the Spectre requisitions officer." Udina interrupted us abruptly. "Anderson, come with me. I'll need your help to set this all up." Anderson nodded, and they both left. I went to Tali and Garrus.

Tali actually complained a bit. "I thought the Ambassador would be a little more grateful. He didn't even thankful." I wiped some sweat from my forehead. "Until I find Saren, I haven't done anything. Come on." "Right behind you, Shepard."

 _Presidium_

The others were already back at the embassy. As I was heading back to the embassy, a man stopped me. "Commander Shepard? My name is Samesh Bhatia. Forgive the intrusion, but I have nowhere else to turn." I shrugged, and smiled. "It's no trouble. What can I do for you?" He was already tearing up a bit. "My wife was a marine. She was in the 212 on Eden Prime." I felt sadness fall over me. "I've requested that my wife's body be returned to me for cremation, but the military has refused my request." I raised my eyebrow as I scratched the back of my neck. "Why did they refuse your request? There's got to be some reason." He sighed. "I don't know. All I know is that they have declared it impossible for my wife to be returned to me." I shook my head. "There's no reason for your wife's body to be held like this. Just wait here." He pointed to the staircase to my right. "The man in charge of my case is Mr. Bosker. When I last saw him, he was in the expensive bar over there." He bowed his head. "Thank you for your time. I just want to give my wife a proper funeral and the respect she deserves." When he looked at me, he had tears in his eyes. I went up the staircase, and into the bar.

He wasn't wrong when he said it was expensive. Ambassadors, diplomats, and other politicans everywhere. I noticed Bosker leaning against the wall near the bar counter. I came over to him. He immediately came to attention. "My goodness, you're Commander Shepard! Your activities made for quite a briefing in the Diplomatic Corps! Is there something I can do to assist you?" I nodded. "Yes, a man named Samesh Bhatia seems to be having some trouble claiming his wife's body. I heard you're in charge of his case?" Bosker sighed, and scratched the back of his neck. "Ah, Mr. Bhatia. A good man in an understandably frustrating position. I wish I could help me, trust me. Serviceman Nirali Bhatia died on Eden Prime, as Mr. Bhatia no doubt told you. Here's the thing. Her wounds were inconsistent with any type of weapon damage we've seen before. That's why her body is being held." "...You think that her body might be dangerous or contaminated?" Bosker shook his head. "No, Commander, Nirali Bhatia isn't dangerous. Her body is, in fact, extremely valuable to the Alliance. The tests we are conducting may lead to better defenses against Geth attacks. Respectfully, Serviceman Bhatia may save more lives in death than she did in life." I thought for a moment. "I understand what you're trying to do, but holding the body is wrong." Bosker seemed to be filled with disbelief. "Commander, you of all people should understand how far we must go to protect humanity!" I gave Bosker a little shove. "Not if we lose our humanity in the process! I'm out there fighting shit like this!" Bosker sighed, and shook his head. "Alright, Commander. You win. It was hard enough refusing Mr. Bhatia, and I'm not going to risk an incident by refusing you. Tell Samesh that the body is being shipped back to Earth. I'll go now to see to it myself." He left the bar, and I came over to the counter.

The bartender came over to me. He looked at me for a moment, and then became surprised. "Commander Shepard! What's the new human Spectre doing at my bar?" I shrugged, and leaned on the counter. "A drink, I suppose." He went under the counter and began searching for a drink. "Anything in particular?" I shrugged. "Something strong." After a few moments, he came back up with a bottle of... something. He poured a shot glass with some of it. "This is some of the strongest stuff I have." I drank the shot. Actually, it didn't taste that bad. Wait, nevermind. My throat is stinging like no tomorrow. "Holy shit, this is good. I'll be back, trust me." I walked out of the bar, and back to the embassy. I'm surprised I'm not drunk, that stuff was strong.

 _Docking Bay 422_

 _A few hours later..._

Tali, Garrus and I came into the docking bay, and found Anderson and Udina already talking outside of the Normandy's entrance. They stopped talking, and looked at me. "I've got big news for you, Shepard. Captain Anderson is stepping down as commanding officer of the Normandy. The ship is yours now." I looked at Anderson, who crossed his arms and nodded. "She's quick and quiet and you know the crew, she's the perfect ship for a Spectre. Treat her well, Commander." I nodded. "I'll take good care of her, sir." What the fuck's going on? Really. I know it isn't just because I became a Spectre. "I know you will, Commander." Seriously. It's bothering the shit out of me. Is Anderson ok? I sighed. "Sir, I want the truth. Why are you stepping down?" "You needed your own ship. A Spectre can't answer to anyone but the Council..." he looked down at his feet. "...and it's time for me to step down."

I came closer to him. "Come clean with me, Captain. You owe me that much." Anderson sighed, and looked around to each of us. Udina, Tali, Garrus, and then me. "I was in your shoes twenty years ago, Shepard. They were considering me for the Spectres." So what Harkin said was true to some extent... "Why didn't you ever mention this to me, Captain?" Anderson seemed a little frustrated, but not at me. At himself. "What was I supposed to say? 'I could've been a Spectre, but I blew it'? I failed, Commander. It's not something I'm proud of. Ask me later, and I'll tell you the whole story. For now, all you need to know is that I was sent on a mission with Saren and he made sure the Council rejected me. I had my shot. It came and went. Now, you have a chance to make up for my mistakes." I looked him in the eyes. "I won't let you down, sir." Anderson sighed. "Saren's gone, don't even try to find him. But we do know what he's after: the Conduit. He's got his Geth scouring the Traverse for clues." Udina interrupted. "We had reports of Geth in the Feros system shortly before our colony there dropped out of contact, and there have been sightings around Noveria." "The Reapers are the real threat, though." Udina shook his head. "I'm with the Council on this one, Shepard. I'm not sure they even exist." Anderson spoke next. "But if they do exist, the Conduit's the key to bringing them back. Stop Saren from getting the Conduit, and we stop the Reapers from returning." I nodded. "I'll stop him, sir."

Udina stopped us before we entered the Normandy. "We have one more lead. Matriarch Benezia, the other voice on that recording? She has a daughter, a scientist who specializes on the Protheans. We don't know if she's involved but it might be a good idea to try and find her. See what she knows, Shepard. Her name's Liara, Dr. Liara T'Soni. We have reports that she was exploring an archeological dig on one of the uncharted worlds in the Artemis Tau cluster." I thought for a moment. "The colonists on Feros might still be alive." "It's your decision, Commander. You're a Spectre now, so you don't answer to us." Udina nodded. "But your actions still reflect on humanity as a whole. You make a mess, and I get stuck cleaning it up." "I'll try not to make things any harder on you, Ambassador." Udina smiled. "Glad to hear it, Commander. Remember, you were a human long before you were a Spectre." He's right. "I have a meeting to get to. Captain Anderson can answer any questions you might have." Udina walked past us into the elevator, and went down.

I motioned for Tali and Garrus to enter the ship. Tali nodded. "Ok, Commander." Both of them entered the ship, leaving Anderson and I alone on the dock. "How are you holding up?" Anderson looked at the Normandy. "Honestly? This isn't how I pictured my career coming to an end. Pushing papers really isn't my thing, you know?" He looked back at me. "But you're the one who can stop Saren. I believe in you, Shepard. If that means I have to step aside, so be it." I looked at the Normandy, too. "Captain, tell me what happened with you and Saren twenty years ago." The Captain crossed his arms. "It's close to twenty years ago now. Ambassador Goyle was our representative here on the Citadel, and just like Udina, she wanted to get a human into the Spectres. She chose me. The Council sent Saren to keep an eye on me and evaluate my performance, just like they sent Nihlus to keep tabs on you." We walked over to the railing of the walkway, and looked out over the Citadel. "Why weren't you honest with me?" Anderson sighed. "It's not something I'm proud of. I had a chance to become the first human Spectre, and I failed. Saren made sure of that." I crossed my arms, and glared at him. "I think I deserve the whole story, sir." "We had intel on a rogue scientist being funded my batarian interests. He was trying to set up a facility to develop illegal AI tech out in the Verge. Alliance intel had done all the work, but the Council wanted a Spectre involved. So, we compromised. I was assigned to help Saren in his investigation. We tracked the scientist to a refining facility on Camala. He was hidden away somewhere inside, protected by an army of batarian mercenaries."

He began pacing. "The plan was simple: sneak into the plant, capture the scientist, sneak back out. Quick, quiet, and a minimum of bloodshed." "I guess things didn't go as planned." He stopped pacing, and leaned on the railing again. "Saren and I split up to cover more ground. Then, about halfway through the mission, there was a massive explosion in the refinery core. Officially, it was ruled an accident, but I think Saren detonated it on purpose to draw off the enemy guards." Damn, that's brutal. "How many casualties?" Anderson began shaking his head. "The explosion tore the refinery to shreds. The whole place was on fire. Black chemical clouds poured out into the atmosphere. Nobody inside survived. There was a camp for the workers and their families nearby." He paused for a moment, and I noticed tears coming out of his eyes. "Between the fires and the toxic fumes, the final death count was over five hundred, mostly civilians." He paused again. "Saren didn't care. The target was eliminated, mission accomplished. And guess what? I ended up taking the blame. That ended all talk of me joining the Spectres." I thought for a moment. "Saren caused the explosion, how'd he pin it on you?" "In his report, Saren accused me of blowing his cover. He said it was my fault the guards were ready for us. He claimed that's why it turned into a massacre. Saren's report was all the proof the Council needed to kill my chances of becoming a Spectre." I patted him on the back. "Don't blame yourself, Captain." Anderson shook his head. "I don't, I blame Saren. I think he wanted things to go bad. He was looking for an excuse to blow that refinery. Maybe he just likes the violence. Maybe he was just trying to make me look bad to keep humans out of the Spectres. If so, he pulled it off." I let him think for a moment. "I should go, Anderson." He didn't respond, so I entered the Normandy.


	7. Chapter 7: Diversion

**Chapter 7: Diversion**

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

I stashed my armor in my locker on the crew deck, and made my way back up to CIC. I came up to Joker at the pilot's seat. He was making preparations to leave the Citadel. "I heard what happened to Captain Anderson. Geez, he survives a hundred battles and then gets taken down by backroom politics." I looked down at him. "Saren's out there somewhere, and we're going to find him." Joker typed more commands into the console. "Everyone on this ship is behind you, Commander. One hundred percent." He opened the ship-wide comms. "Intercom's open. If you've got anything you want to say to the crew, now's the time." I leaned down towards the console. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Commander Shepard speaking. You have no doubt heard that Captain Anderson is no longer in command of the ship, and that I am the new commanding officer. However, we have our orders: find Saren before he finds the Conduit. I won't lie to you, this mission isn't going to be easy. For too long, our species has stood apart from the others. Now, it's time for us to step up and do our part for the rest of the galaxy! It's time to show them what humans are made of! Our enemy knows we're coming. When we go into the Traverse, Saren's followers will be waiting for us, but we'll be ready for them too. Humanity needs to do this. We need to do this. Not just for our own sake, but for the sake of every other species in Citadel Space. Saren must be stopped, and I promise you all that we will stop him!" I cut off the comms. Joker was looking up at me. "Well said, Commander. Captain Anderson would be proud." I turned around, and began to walk away. "The Captain gave up everything so I could have this chance. We can't fail." Joker yelled back at me. "Aye-aye, sir!"

I climbed down the stairs to the crew deck. Kaidan was cleaning his armor as usual, and there weren't that many other crew members around. I entered my new quarters. It was dimly lit, and all of Captain Anderson's things had been moved out. It felt so... empty. I slipped off my shirt, and left it on the couch. Goddamn, so much has happened today. I mean, becoming a Spectre? Big deal, man. I better be prepared to be swamped by the press. This is probably going to be worse than the amount of press I got from surviving Akuze. I collapsed on the bed, and I was asleep in a matter of seconds.

 _February 9th, 2183_

 _0345 Hours_

I jerked awake in a cold sweat. The nightmare was back again. The grinding of machines. An entire race's extinction. The screams of the many. The voices of my comrades long gone. It was too much. I sat up, and wiped some sweat off of my forehead. I rubbed my eyes, and checked my omnitool. 0345 hours, fuck. I got up, despite wanting to lay back down and go to sleep. I grabbed my shirt from the couch, and put it back on. I opened the door, and stepped out.

The mess was empty. I grabbed myself a glass of water from the fridge, and began drinking it. I sat down at the table, and began thinking. So, what do I do first. I checked my omnitool. Oh yeah! I nearly forgot! There were those weird readings from the Argos Rho cluster. I guess I'll check that out later. I kept drinking from the glass until it was empty. I felt like I was getting more and more tired. I began to drift off in my chair. Hold on. I heard someone coming over. "Commander?" It was Kaidan. He sat in the chair next to me. "You ok?" I nodded groggily. "Yeah, yeah. What've you been up to?" Kaidan shrugged. "I don't know. I had a little trouble sleeping, so I thought that I'd get a drink." I got up, and grabbed another glass of water. "Here you go." He took it from my hand, and took a sip. "Thanks, Shepard." I sat back down.

"Did you want to talk to me about something?" Kaidan thought for a moment. "Nothing in particular. I just want to get to know my commander, you know?" I nodded. Makes sense enough to me. "Well, what do you want to know?" He pointed to the scar on my face. "Commander, since you've come on board a few months ago, I've always wondered how you got that scar. Where'd you get it?" I felt it for a moment with my hand. Oh yeah, the reminder. I swear I could hear the voices returning for a moment. I zoned out for a moment. Kaidan waved his hand in front of my face. "You ok?" I nodded. "Yeah. So, this scar. I got it from Akuze." Kaidan raised his eyebrow, and took a sip from his water. "How?" I looked away. I could feel some tears in my eyes. I can't forget them, I can't forget any of them. "It's ok, Commander. You don't have to talk about it." I could hear him get up. "I should probably be getting back to my quarters." He walked off to the elevator, leaving his glass on the table.

I got up after some time. I dragged myself back into my quarters, and I didn't even have the strength to drag myself back into bed. I collapsed on the couch, and was out in a second.

 _0930 Hours_

I left my quarters, and stretched outside my door. I guess it's time to check on our new team members downstairs. I took my time walking over to the elevator, greeting every crew member who passed me. I actually feel good. I pressed the button for the cargo hold, and felt the elevator begin to move down. I wonder how everyone's adjusted. This is has to be pretty new for all of them. Especially Tali. I mean, she's pretty young after all. The elevator opened, and I found Garrus inspecting the Mako. I came over to him. He looked up at me, and raised himself.

"Thanks for bringing me on board, Commander. I knew working with a Spectre would be better than life at C-Sec." I crossed my arms. "Have you worked with a Spectre before?" Garrus scratched the back of his neck. "Well, uh... no. But I know what they're like. Spectres make their own rules. You're free to handle things your way. At C-Sec, you're buried by rules. The damn bureaucrats are always on your back." What? As much as I like having no rules, there's a reason rules exist. "For the most part, the rules are there for a reason, Garrus." Garrus sighed. "Maybe. But sometimes, it feels like the rules are only there to stop me from doing my work. If I'm trying to take down a suspect, it shouldn't matter how I do it, as long as I do it." Oh no. He's got Saren's line of thought. Gee. "But C-Sec wants it done their way. Protocol and procedure come first. That's why I left." I sighed. "So you just quit because you didn't like the way they do things?" He crossed his arms. "There's more to it than that. It didn't start out bad, but as I rose in rank, I got saddled with more and more red tape. C-Sec's handling of Saren was typical. I just couldn't take it anymore..." He breathed in deeply. "I hate leaving." "I hope you made the right choice. I'd hate for you to regret it later."

He scratched the back of his neck again. "Well, that's sort of why I teamed up with you. It's a chance for me to get off the Citadel, and see how things are done outside C-Sec. Either way, I plan to make the most of this. And without C-Sec headquarters looking over my shoulder... well, maybe I can get the job done my way for a chance." I shook my head. "If getting the job done means endangering innocent people, then no. We get the job done right, not fast. Got it?" He seemed surprised. He stepped back a bit. "Wait, I wasn't trying to-" He stopped, and thought for a moment. "I understand, Commander. Thanks for coming by." I smiled. "Any time." He got back to work checking on the Mako.

Wrex was checking his weapons across the room, so I came over to check on him. He glanced over at me, and kept checking his guns. "Nice ship you've got, Shepard. What can I do for you?" I leaned against the lockers. "What's your story, Wrex?" I stopped cleaning his guns, and glared at me. "There's no story. Go ask the quarian if you want stories." "Pfft. You krogan live for centuries, don't tell me you haven't had a few interesting adventures." Wrex thought for a moment. "Well, there was this one time the turians almost wiped out our entire race. That was fun." Hm. Similar to when we first encountered them. "I heard about that. You know, they almost did the same to us." Wrex glared at me again. "It's not the same." I raised my eyebrow, and shrugged. "It seems pretty close to me." Wrex's face grew angrier. "So your people were infected with a genetic mutation? An infection that makes only a few in a thousand children survive birth? And I suppose it's destroying your entire species, too?" "I suppose it isn't _all_ the same..." Wrex sighed. "I don't expect you to understand, but don't compare humanity's fate with the krogan." I held up my hands. "I was just making conversation. I wasn't trying to upset you." "Your ignorance doesn't upset me, Shepard." Thank God. I don't want to be pummeled by a krogan, not today at least. "As for the krogan, I gave up on them long ago." He pumped his shotgun. "The genophage infected us, but it's not what's killing us." I nodded. "I think I get it. I have some things to attend to." Wrex continued cleaning his shotgun. "Shepard."

I made my way down one of the halls to engineering. I already heard the buzz of all the crewmen required to keep this beast running from behind the door. Opening the door, I made my way through the crowds to Adams. He finished typing something into his console, and turned around to talk to me. "Hey, Commander, you know that quarian? Tali? She's been spending all her time down here asking me about our engines." I crossed my arms and raised my eyebrow. "Is she bothering you? Because if she is, I'll tell her to leave you alone." Adams laughed. "What? No! She's amazing! I wish my guys were half as smart as she is. Give her a month on board and she'll know more about our engines than I do! She's got a real knack for technology, that one. I can see why you wanted her to come along." I looked over at her. She was calibrating the engine. "I figured she'd be a real asset to the team." "You've got an eye for talent, Commander, but I'm guessing that's not why you came down here." I nodded. "I just came down here to check on things. How's the ship running?" Adams looked back at the massive engine behind him. "Better, since Tali came on board. This thing's ready to go through hell and back, Commander." I nodded. "Carry in, Adams." He turned back to his console, and continued working. "Aye-aye, Commander."

I wandered over to Tali, who kept working on the engine. It took her some time to notice me. "Your ship's amazing, Shepard! I've never seen a drive core like this before. I can't believe you were able to fit it into a ship this small!" She seemed pretty excited. Well, then again, she's a quarian. She's into technology, and this would, of course, get her interested. "I'm starting to understand why you humans have been so successful. I had no idea Alliance vessels were so advanced!" I shook my head. "Not every Alliance ship is like this. The Normandy's a prototype, cutting edge technology and such." She admired the engine a little bit longer. "A month ago, I was patching a makeshift fuel line into a converted tug ship in the flotilla. Now, I'm sitting on board one of the most advanced vessels in Citadel space." She looked back at me. "I have to thank you again for bringing me along. Traveling on a vessel like this is a dream come true for me." Wow, she's into ship tech alright. "I had no idea you found ship technology so interesting." She shrugged. "It comes with being a quarian. The Migrant Fleet is the key to the survival of my people, and ships are our most vauable resource." She pointed at the drive core. "But we don't have anything like this. We make do with cast-off and second-hand equipment. We just try to keep them running for as long as we can. Some of the Fleet's larger vessels date all the way back to our original flight from the Geth." I chuckled. "I can't believe your fleet's still using ships that are three centuries old. How do you even keep them running?" "They're constantly being repaired modified and refitted. They aren't pretty, but they work. Mostly. We've tried to make ourselves as independent as possible on the flotilla. You know, growing our own food, mining and processing our own fuel. But some things we can't make on our own. A patch to maintain the hull inegrity requires raw materials we just don't have. That's why our Pilgrimages are so important."

I leaned on a nearby console. "I'm a little curious. I want to know more about the Pilgrimage." To be honest, I already know what it is. I've studied it before to understand certain situations. I don't even know why I asked it. Is it because I like listening to her...? I don't know. She's kind of... cute... when she goes on like this. Wait, am I really calling her cute? I don't even know what she looks like under the suit. "When my people reach maturity, we leave our birth ships and seek acceptance with a new crew. It's necessary to maintain genetic diversity among the fleet. But no ship wants to accept someone who will be a burden on them. So, to prove our worth, we embark on a Pilgrimage. We set out alone, leaving the flotilla and our families behind us. We only return once we have found something of value we can bring back to the fleet. This is presented to the captain of the respective ship we wish to join. If the gift is accepted, we're welcomed into the." I raised my eyebrow. "Can a captain choose to reject the gift?" She thought for a moment. "Yes, but that doesn't happen often. Most captains are eager to increase the size of their crew. It increases their own standing in our society. Even when a gift is not particularly valuable, the captain usually accepts it out of a sense of tradition. However, there's a stigma to presenting a sub-standard gift. It's not the best way to make a good impression on a new community. Most Pilgrims don't return until they find something worthwhile." I nodded. "Hm. Anyway, I have some things to attend to. Do you want to talk later?" She shrugged. "If I finish working on the drive core in time. There's a lot I can do to improve it." I pointed towards the door. "Yeah, I should probably go then." Even with the mask on, I could tell she smiled. "See you later, Commander." She turned back to her console and kept working.

 _1500 Hours_

 _En Route to the Argos Rho cluster_

I stood watching our progress on the galaxy map as the crew worked around me. So, we're finally doing something. Our first task. Tali and Adams have tracked the readings to the Hydra system, on the planet Metgos. We began our journey there a few hours ago. As I began checking my omnitool, Joker called over on the comms. "Commander, urgent message from Alliance Command coming in. I'll patch it through." There was a pause for a moment as Joker switched the comms over to Alliance Command. "Shepard, this is Admiral Hackett." Oh boy. If he has to talk to me about something, it has to be big. "We've got a situation here, and you're the only one who can handle it." Only me? Geez, I know I'm a Spectre and all, but I'm already going somewhere. "What do you need, Admiral?" "Hopefully you remember where you went through your initial training." Although he couldn't see me, I nodded out of instinct. "Yes, sir. The Lunar marine training facility." There was a pause. "Well, the facility is now being used to test weapons and technology in the same live-fire simulations you went through. One of the VIs we use to simulate enemy tactics in the 'killhouse' is no longer responding to our override commands. It's gone rogue." I thought for a moment. What? Rogue? It was working fine when I was there. "How many casualties so far?" "Seventeen marines were killed in the 'killhouse' before we realized what had happened. That's when we decided to contact you." Oh man. I remember almost being killed in the Killhouse. I also remember it being relatively easy to go through with Tex. Oh man, Tex was good. But now I guess I have to go through it again with others.

"VI support is critical to our military success. They process thousands of status reports and react in nanoseconds. No human can do that. But as advanced as this thing is at military strategy, it's still just a VI. It's not supposed to be self-aware, and it's completely disengaged from any networks. That's where you come in." Oh boy. I knew it. "We need you to fight your way through the Killhouse again to the VI core, and manually disable it." "Don't worry Admiral. I'll take care of it." There was a pause. "I know Spectres answer to the Council, but you're still human. You're still part of the Alliance military, and right now we need you. As you probably already know, the VI controls all of the facility's weapons, drones, and automated defenses. You're the only one alive right now who's completed the Killhouse with the best possible time. You're the only one who can pull this off, Shepard. Good luck, Hackett out."

Alliance Command's comms cut off, and Joker spoke again. "Orders, Commander?" I thought for a minute. "Commander?" "Set a course for the Moon. We have business to take care of."


	8. Chapter 8: Ghosts

**Chapter 8: Ghosts**

 _February 11th, 2183_

 _The Moon_

The Mako landed on the surface of the Moon with a loud thud. "Is landing in this thing _always_ rough like this?" I turned around in the driver's seat to look at Garrus. "I'm afraid so." Garrus shook his head, and leaned back. Tali looked over at me. "What should we expect, Commander?" I opened my omnitool. "Advanced combat drones armed with rockets and/or heavy machine guns." I searched through some files, and finally found the ones detailing structural and programming weaknesses in the drones. I sent them to both Tali and Garrus. "I've been through this course before, so if you stick with me, you should be fine." Both of them nodded in understanding, so I began to drive towards the facility.

As we approached the facility, the Mako hit something. Of course, being worried that the Mako could've been damaged, I got out to investigate. I walked over to what we hit, and... my God. It's a lunar probe. Really old, from the looks of it. It was really dusty too. I crouched down and wiped some residue from the side. A flag was barely visible, having been worn over many years. A red flag, with a yellow hammer and sickle in the corner. I wiped more residue from the probe. Down the side, "CCCP LUNA 23" was listed. The comms in my helmet crackled, scaring me, and making me fall over on my ass. "Are you ok out there, Commander?" "Yeah, Tali, I'm fine..." The comms shut off. I turned around, and saw Tali coming out of the Mako. She walked over to me.

"What'd you find?" I got up. "Something that's been missing for the past 209 years." She knelt down, and began scanning it with her omnitool. "That's interesting." I knelt down beside her, and leaned over to look at her omnitool. "Anything strange?" She opened a panel marked "ВНИМАНИЕ!" and began inspecting the inside. "Hm..." She scanned the inside of the probe. "Do you mind if I take some materials from this?" I shrugged. "Why not? Take your time. It's useless now." I stood up, and leaned against the Mako. I watched as Tali fiddled with the probe for a while, and began taking out the internals with extreme care. But while fiddling with something for a while, she was shocked with electricity, and was knocked over. I ran over to her, and knelt down beside her.

"Are you hurt?" She cradled her lefthand. "No, no. I'm fine." "Are you absolutely sure?" She inspected her hand again. "Well... maybe." She looked back up at me. "Mind getting some medigel for me?" There was something about the way she said it that made me just smile. "Of course." I went back over to the Mako, and peeked inside to grab some medigel. Garrus was staring at me from his seat. "What are you guys even doing out there?" I looked back at him. "You're welcome to come out here, if you want." Garrus shook his head. "No thanks, I'm fine in here. Doesn't seem like you guys need me for anything yet." I shrugged. "Ok then." I walked back over to Tali.

She was still holding her hand when I came back. I sat down beside her again. "Here you go." I handed her the medigel. I noticed that she was staring at me. It was that stare that kind of just melts your heart. I know she probably couldn't see it, but I raised my eyebrow. "What?" She blinked a few times. "Oh, sorry." She applied the medigel to her hand, and we got up. "Let's get going. We already took enough time on this." She grabbed the materials she salvaged and followed me back into the Mako.

We began driving towards the facility again. Hopefully, we won't hit any more probes along the way. I've been thinking about my days at the facility, and how I was unusually skilled at whatever courses they threw at me. And then I remembered Tex, and how we worked together so well all those years. I remembered meeting him at the Philly Spaceport, and how nervous both of us were. Who knew that the poor kid that left Earth that day to join the military would have galaxy-wide reknown.

The facility became visible on the other side of the massive crater. All the lights were off, and it was clear that the place had already been evacuated. There were no ships docked at its port. However, we came here for the Killhouse's VI, so we wouldn't be going through the main facility. I had been forwarded information on the Killhouse's three emergency exits, so I decided to drives us over to them. However, each exit came from one of the three stages of the Killhouse, and I also knew that the VI needed to be disabled in all three stages to be completely shut off. This was going to be pretty hard, even though Tex and I got through it easy enough all those years ago.

However, as we approached the location of the three emergency exit bunkers, heavy automated defenses began activating, and firing rockets at the Mako. Garrus hopped into the turret while I drove around, giving him enough time to return fire on the defenses. After a while, the turret fell silent, and all the defenses had been destroyed. We pulled up next to the first exit, and dismounted.

I pulled out my pistol, Tali pulled out her shotgun, and Garrus pulled out his sniper rifle. "Remember, stick with me, and we'll get through this just fine." Garrus nodded. "Alright, Commander. Lead the way." I opened the exit, and we began making our way down a dark hallway. That hallway eventually lead to a ladder. I leaned over, and looked down the ladder. It lead right to the preparation room for the Killhouse. I began climbing down, and the others followed me.

We dropped down into the room, and looked around. I remember there being weapons and ammo on the counter near the entrance to the Killhouse, but they were gone. Probably taken before everyone evacuated. It was hard to see anything else because the lighting was off. We turned on our omnitool lights. Holy shit. There were 3 dead marines in the corner. I looked away, and felt as though I were about to throw up. I could tell that Garrus and Tali were feeling the same way. "Dammit. We gotta shut this thing down." I aimed my light at what looked like an emergency lighting switch. "Garrus, hit the lights." He nodded at me, opened the panel on the wall, and flipped the switches. After the lights flickered for a bit, they lit up. There was a glowing red button by the door. I remembered it being the one to start the Killhouse. I looked at Tali and Garrus. "Are you guys ready for this?" They both nodded. "Yes, Commander." I smashed the button.

The door flew open, and just like I remembered it years ago, we were immediately under fire. Remember the pattern, Lucas. Remember the pattern. "Garrus, get up on that ledge and give us covering fire!" He climbed up the crates to the vantage point, and immediately began firing. Tali and I began going from turret to turret, taking them out one by one. Like old times. I looked back at Garrus' position. Wait, did I see... Tex? No. He's dead. He's been dead for 6 years. Can't think about it now. I hacked one of the turrets, and it distracted the other turrets enough for Tali and I to finish them off. "Form up, Garrus. We gotta take out this core." He climbed down from his position, and ran over to us.

The core was locked by a rather complex firewall. But, then again, I've hacked worse. It took me longer than I wanted to, but I eventually got through. But when I opened it, there was a ping on my heads-up display. It spelled out "TEX". I shook my head, and it was gone. "Did any of you guys see that?" The others looked at each other, and shook their heads. "Are you ok, Commander?" I thought for a moment and nodded. "Yeah, Garrus. I'm fine." We entered the room, and there it was in the center. After giving it a scan with my omnitool, I saw... oh shit. This is gonna take a damn long time to hack if I do it alone. "Tali, you mind helping me with this one?" She stood next to me as I scanned the core's console for firewalls. "How many firewalls?" A few seconds later, I got my answer. "A whole lot." Garrus interrupted us. "How about we just blow it up? It's quicker than hacking it." Tali and I looked at each other. She shrugged, and said, "Why not?" I sighed. "Why not indeed. Back up." We backed up towards, and began firing at the core. It burst into flames. "Guys, let's get out of here!" We rushed out the door in time to escape the explosion of the core. To our right was the door out of this stage. I looked up at the vents above. The room was flooding with gas! "Guys, let's get a move on!"

Tali hacked the door, and we burst through into even more gunfire. A combination of MGs and rockets, just dandy. I remember this. "Garrus, there's another vantage point over there." I pointed towards the massive pile of crates near us. "Cover us, we'll be doing the same thing as before." A voice other than Garrus or Tali responded. "Aye, Thor!" I looked over to Garrus. But it wasn't Garrus. For a moment, I saw a mangled Tex, sniper rifle in hand. I jumped back. "Shepard, you _sure_ you're fine?" I took a deep breath. "Sorry. This place brings back memories." Garrus climbed up into position, and let loose on the drones on the field below. Tali and I did what we did before, overloading and hacking drones until we reached the end. I called Garrus back over, and we examined the door.

"Damn. VI's put more firewalls in place. This'll take a while." Garrus pushed me aside. "I've got this, Commander." He pulled his pistol, and shot the console. The door popped open. He gave me a glance. I rolled my eyes. We entered the room, and found the core there. But we had a new problem. The thing was surrounded by kinetic barriers. Not only that, more gas was leaking in. We began firing on the kinetic barriers, which eventually dissipated. Garrus tossed a grenade at the core, and we rushed out. The core exploded, and the lights shut off across the Killhouse. "Switch to flashlights." We flipped on our flashlights and came to the door. As Tali was hacking it open, I thought I heard my comms open. "It's been too long, Shepard." I flipped around, and pointed my pistol in the dark. Garrus grabbed my shoulder. "Commander, there's something wrong. I can tell." I sighed, and shook my head. "I'll tell you later, Garrus. We should focus on this now."

We busted through the door into the final stage. Rocket drones. I nearly forgot. This is where my head was nearly blown off. There was a smaller vantage point nearby. "Garrus, get up on that vantage point." He nodded, and climbed up. He already began firing on the drones below, even though we were in the dark. There were explosions all around, and it was much harder to get up close to the drones. But, after a lot of grinding through them, we came across to the other side of the field alive. There was the final door to the VI core, and... it was covered by a kinetic barrier. Garrus sprayed it with his pistol, and shot the door open, too. He tossed a few grenades in as we began firing inside. The explosion was massive. The lights throughout the facility began flickering. Then, there was a massive whining noise and static across all of our comms. Across my heads-up display, some binary code displayed. "01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000". That series repeated several times. I knew what it meant. I felt my heart beating faster, and I was sweating. The VI was begging for help. Over and over again. The comms went silent, and the binary stopped. As Garrus and Tali were nearing the exit, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I heard my comms open. "It's been a while, Thor." I spun around. For a moment, I saw Tex. His armor broken, and he was soaked in blood. The flag painted on his arm was worn. His helmet was broken, too. I could see his eyes. They were gouged out, with blood and tears gushing out. His teeth were broken, too. He leaned in close. "I'm in Hell, Shepard. Help me." I saw him disappear in a burst of flames, and I broke down crying. The others noticed me. They both ran over to me, and knelt down beside me. I had curled up into a ball.

"What happened, Commander?" Tali helped me sit up. She had her left hand on my shoulder. To be honest, it felt rather comforting. "I saw something that should've been gone years ago." I tore off my helmet, and set it down next to me. I rested my arms on my knees. I looked up at Garrus. "I've seen horrors. Good God, I've seen horrors. They never leave you." I began crying again, and buried my face in my arms. Tali tried to comfort me the best she could as Garrus called for evac. "It's ok, Commander. Everything's going to be fine." I want to believe her. Trust me, I do. But when your past begins fucking with you, nothing's fine.


	9. Chapter 9: Metgos

**Chapter 9: Metgos**

 _0200 Hours_

 _February 13th, 2183_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

I finished writing up my report on the Moon incident, and sent it along to Alliance Command. I leaned back in my chair, and sighed. I've been spending hours trying to write this report. I've rewritten it at least 10 times now. I grabbed the nearly empty coffee mug from my desk, and finished off what was left of the black coffee inside. I set it back down, and stared at the ceiling. Is my past going to continue to haunt me like it did back in the Killhouse? I rubbed my face, and got up from my chair. I stumbled over to my bed, and collapsed on it. As I began drifting off to sleep, I heard the door open.

"Commander, you ok?" I sat up, and looked in the direction of whoever was speaking. It was Ashley. "Yeah. You need something?" She had a datapad in her hand. "Did inventory of the armory. Everything's in order." She left the datapad on my desk, and turned to leave. I wanted to stop her, ask her to stay. She knew what it was like to lose your entire unit. But then again, she has work to do, too. I watched her leave, and I passed out on the bed.

 _0930 Hours_

Down in the cargo bay, Wrex, Ashley and I were gearing up to go down to the surface of Metgos. When they slipped their helmets on, I began briefing them. "Alright, guys. The distress signal we found a few days ago leads down to the planet's surface. We'll be dropped in the Mako nearby, and make our way over to the wreckage." I opened my omnitool. "We've got a Hazard Level 2 warning. This planet's environment is hostile, so don't go outside of the Mako unless absolutely necessary." Both of them nodded, and we climbed into the Mako.

When inside, I turned on all the systems, and made sure that Wrex and Ashley were fastened in. "You guys haven't been dropped in this thing before, so I'll say it now. You'll never want to drop in it again." I could see Ashley raise her eyebrow behind her helmet. "Why?" I sat back down in the driver's seat. "You'll see." Joker came over the comms. "Approaching drop point." The cargo bay door opened, and I drove out. We began falling towards the ground, so I turned on the boosters to steady our fall. We hit the ground with a massive thud.

I turned on the map next to the driving wheel. Alright, it seems like the crash site isn't that far away. I turned around to check on Wrex and Ashley. "See why?" Wrex was smiling. "I expected worse, Commander. Mind making the drop harder next time?" Ashley shook her head. "No. That drop hurt enough." I turned back to the driving wheel, and began driving towards the crash site.

The dot indicating the location of the distress signal got closer and closer on the map. The further we came, the more debris there was. But then, as we came close, the signal stopped. Wrex climbed into the turret. "I have a bad feeling about this, Shepard. We better stay on guard." Ashley was looking out of the windows in the back. We sat near the debris for a few minutes, waiting for something to happen.

There was a slight rumbling of the ground. I began driving around, making sure that it was nothing. But then, out of the blue, Geth began popping out of the ground, armed with rockets and machine guns. They even had armatures waiting for us. Ashley rushed back into her seat. "Geth! They must've set this up as a trap!" I nodded, and began driving around them, avoiding rockets, shockwaves and gunfire as Wrex emptied tons of rounds into them. He was only using the autocannon. "Wrex, there's a heavy cannon mounted on this thing, too! Use it!" He didn't respond, so I took that as good news. The Mako was shaken as he fired the cannon into an armature, knocking it over. Taking advantage of this, I drove over it, crushing it under the weight of our IFV. We kept downing Geth and running them over until they were all destroyed. I parked next to the main crash site, and got out.

I knew I only had a few minutes to check, but it was clear from the damage done that there were no survivors. There weren't even any survivors to rescue. Dammit. I hoped we could get here in time to help them. I climbed back into the Mako and opened comms with the Normandy. "Normandy, this is Shepard. Requesting extraction." There was a pause, and then Joker answered. "Roger, Commander. We're inbound, ETA two minutes."

 _2100 Hours_

 _Back aboard the Normandy_

I finished my report on Metgos and sent it to Alliance Command. I got up from my chair, threw my shirt on the couch, and collapsed on my bed. Holy shit, I'm so fuckin' tired. I began to drift off to sleep... no. I woke up, got up, and slipped on the shirt I had thrown on the couch. I opened my door, and went out.

The crew deck was relatively empty, considering how late it was. I stepped into the elevator, and pressed the button for Cargo Bay/Engineering. The elevator began descending. You know, you'd think that by now, we'd have improved elevators to some extent. But no, they still go at the same shitty slow speed. It's always bothered me since I came on board. The elevator door opened after what seemed like forever, and I stepped out into the cargo bay.

The cargo bay was empty, too. The others must've gone off to their quarters by now. I paced around for a bit before remembering that I had picked up a pack of cigarettes on the Citadel before we left. I pulled the pack out of my pocket, slipped one out, and put it between my lips. I pulled a lighter out of my front pocket, and lit the cigarette. I took a drag, and released the smoke into the air. Damn. It's been a long time since I've had a cigarette. I stopped on my 17th birthday as a promise to Finch. I know how unhealthy they are, but hot damn do they feel good.

I heard the sound of the door to engineering opening, followed by footsteps. I didn't bother turning around to look at whoever was coming. I took in another drag, and breathed the smoke out. "Commander?" It was Tali. I put the cigarette in my mouth and turned around. "Hm? Need something?" She had a datapad in her hands. "I finished working on the drive core. It should work better now." She handed me the datapad, and I had a look over it. Impressive, to say the least. She certainly has talent, alright. I nodded, and took the cigarette out of my mouth. "Impressive, Tali. Very impressive." I kept reading the report. When I finished it, I shifted my eyes up at Tali. She had her hands behind her back, and was swaying slightly. She was also staring at me with some sort of look, one that I've seen before. I remember Riley giving me that look more than a few times all those years ago. I took the cigarette out of my mouth and blew some smoke out. "Is there something, wrong, Tali?" She seemed startled. "Oh, sorry Commander. I was just thinking." I raised my eyebrow. "About what?" She looked away for a moment. "Oh, nothing." I took another drag from my cigarette, and blew out the smoke. "Ok then?" The cig was already a stub, so I threw it on the floor and put it out with my foot. "Tali, I have a question." She looked back at me with a sort of eagerness. "Yes?" I checked my omnitool. "Your shift ended a couple hours ago. Why are you still up so late?" She began rubbing her hands together nervously. "Well... I kind of like being down here. It reminds me of home." I looked around. "Well, I hate to say it, but I gotta go. I have a lot to do." She looked down at the floor. "Oh. I understand." She looked back up into my eyes. "Talk later?" I smiled. I don't know, I can't help it. "Sure." We just stared at each other for a moment, and then she decided to head back into engineering. I stepped into the elevator, and went back up to the crew deck.


	10. Chapter 10: Distress Call

**Chapter 10: Distress Call**

 _1400 Hours_

 _February 16th, 2183_

I found Pressly having a beer in the mess when I was coming back to my quarters. "Hey, Commander. Beer?" I shrugged. "Why not?" He grabbed a beer from the fridge and gave it to me. I opened the bottle and took a sip. Tasted pretty bad, but who cares. Closest thing I can get to a quality beer here, anyway. Pressly took a swig of his beer.

"If anyone has to take over for Captain Anderson, I'm glad it's you." He took another drink and looked around. "I'm not so sure about having non-humans on our ship, though. I mean, this is a top secret project, and we're letting non-military on like it's nothing. You sure you're going about this the right way?" I took a drink. "Hey, we're all on the same team, Pressly. They're pretty talented, too. You should see them in action." He looked surprised. "With all due respect, sir, that's what they said about Nihlus, and look how that turned out." I raised my eyebrow. "Speak freely, Pressly. I want to know if you have a problem with non-humans." Pressly set down his beer and crossed his arms. "It's not that, Commander. Humanity has always handled its own problems. Saren attacked one of our colonies, so we should be the ones to stop him. We don't need _their_ help." I took a drink from my beer. "Some people think asking for help is a sign of weakness. That's just being stupid and stubborn. No matter how strong you are, allies can make you stronger." Pressly shrugged. "Eh... I guess so. Maybe I'm just stuck in the old ways of thinking. Don't worry, Commander. This won't be a problem."

I set down my beer. "So, what do you-" I was interrupted by Joker calling down over the comms. "Commander, I just picked up an automated distress call from a team of marines on the surface of Edolus, a planet near Dr. T'Soni's dig site. Adjust course?" I nodded Pressly towards the elevator, and he left. "Yes, Joker. How much time until we get there?" "We'll be there ETA two hours." I thought for a moment. "Let Garrus and Tali know that I want them ready by then." "Aye-aye, Commander." Joker cut off the comms. Oh boy. More marines in distress? Come on. And if this is anything like Akuze, that's just dandy.

 _An hour later..._

The Mako dropped as rough as usual on the surface of the desert planet. I immediately began driving towards the last known location of the marines. "Alright, guys. If there's any threat, you're free to fire." Garrus nodded. "Got it, Shepard." He climbed into the turret, and began scanning the surrounding area. The further we got towards the distress beacon, the more ominous the place began to become. There was too little movement, even though we were right near a sandstorm and there were small asteroids falling from the sky.

We eventually came to the location, and found a horrifying sight. Bodies everywhere. The tank they had was heavilly damaged and battered. Blood running all over. I stopped the Mako and opened the door. "Garrus, you come with me. Tali, stay here and keep watch." Garrus and I stepped out into the heat of the desert planet.

With guns drawn we approached the scene of what seemed like a bloody battle. The tank had burned out, clearly no survivors. There were bodies littered all around, some mutilated beyond belief. I knelt down besides the body of one who'd had the lower half of his body ripped off while Garrus inspected the other bodies. I removed his helmet, and was about to grab the dogtags when he opened his eyes. He let out a blood curdling scream and I jumped back. He turned his head to look at me. There were blood and tears coming from his eyes. He let out a cry. "KILL ME!" I could only help but stare in horror at him. Garrus ran over and stared at him, too. "PLEASE! FUCKING KILL ME!" He screamed again. I nodded towards the Mako. "Garrus, you might want to leave." Garrus took a moment. "Yes, sir." He ran back into the Mako, and shut the door.

The marine kept screaming. "KILL ME!" He crawled over to my boot, and grabbed it. "PLEASE!" I drew my pistol. I could feel tears gathering in my eyes. I remembered everything that happened on Akuze. I held it to the marine's head, and he stopped screaming. "It's ok, soldier. It'll be all over soon. Shhh..." The marine coughed up blood, and kept crying. "Shhhhh..." I hesitated from pulling the trigger. I can't do this. This hurts. Before I could do it, the marine grabbed my gun with all his strength, and held it to his head. "KILL ME!" I looked away, and pulled the trigger. I felt him release my gun, and collapse to the ground. I collapsed on the ground beside him and began crying. I remember Akuze. I heard the voices. They were calling me again, to join them, to join this soldier in death. I spent a few minutes crying before I rolled over and ripped the dog tags off of the marine's body. I held them in front of my face. They read, "Corporal Joseph Nieumann, 302nd Infantry". I picked myself up off the ground, and began walking back to the Mako. That was when I heard the comms open. It was Garrus talking, and he sounded panicked. "Commander, there's a contact on our radar, but we can't locate it. Get back here as soon as possible." I picked up the pace, and climbed back into the Mako. I sat myself in the driver's seat, and looked up at Garrus in the turret. "See anything, Garrus?" He moved the turret around a bit. "No, but we have an odd radar contact. I don't see it anywhere..." I began looking out the windows. Then, I began feeling something. Something that shouldn't be here. Something that I felt years ago. I felt the ground rumble with the force of thresher maws.

I began driving as fast as I could away from the area. I'm not letting this happen again. I'm not dying today. I could still hear the voices in the back of my head, telling me to drive back. And you know what? I did. I have to avenge these guys. I made a sharp u-turn, and began speeding back. "Commander, what are you doing?! We'll be killed by those things!" I didn't respond. I don't have to. All I have to do is put these things down. I saw a maw pop up out of the ground near us, and began circling around it. Garrus was emptying round after round into the thing, but it just wouldn't collapse. I opened comms with the Normandy. "This is Shepard! We need immediate air support, we've got maws everywhere!" A maw popped up right next to us. "Aye-aye, Commander. ETA one minute." "You better hurry, Joker. I'm not letting these things take me this time." A maw popped up right in front of us, forcing me to swerve around it. Garrus leaned down to talk to me. "Gun's overheating, Commander, we've gotta get out of here!" I looked back at him. "Yeah. Normandy's gonna blow this place to Hell." I heard a Maw pop up right next to us. Garrus unloaded more rounds into it, and I heard him run out of ammo. But, thank God, the Maw fell, sending tons of sand into the air. Fuck yeah. That was for Akuze. I heard the roar of the Normandy from the sky, even from in here. We were already far enough away. "Bombs away." We watched from a hill as that area was scorched with fire and explosions. There was no way the maws could've survived that.

 _0330 Hours_

 _February 18th, 2183_

 _The Citadel_

I was sitting on a bench on the Presidium having a smoke when a C-Sec officer came over to me. "Hey, no smoking on the Presidium." I looked up at him. I didn't even have to say anything for him to recognize me. "Oh, you're that human Spectre! I'm sorry." He backed off, and got back to his post nearby. Well, I guess that's pro of being a Spectre: not being disturbed. I threw the cigarette onto the ground, stomped it out, and layed my head back.

I'm supposed to be meeting Admiral Kahoku here in a bit. It's going to be hard telling him about what happened to his men. Being attacked by thesher maws is no way to go out. It wasn't supposed to be the way Chicken, Crazy Ivan, Tombstone, and Lucifer went out, and I'm not dying the same way. I'm not joining them yet.

I heard someone sit down on the bench next to me. "You're Commander Shepard, I presume." I looked over at the man. It was Admiral Kahoku. "Yes, sir." Kahoku sighed and looked around. "Commander, Captian Anderson told me that you know what happened to my men. Is that so?" I thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes, sir." I grabbed Corporal Nieumann's dogtags from my pocket and offered them to Kahoku. "They were decimated by a thresher maw attack." Kahoku inspected the dogtags, and I could see tears already coming out of his eyes. "They were baited by an Alliance distress beacon. They were led right next to a maw nest." There was a moment of silence. "Commander, thank you. I'll do everything in my power to avenge their deaths. We'll find who did this to them." He got up from the bench. "If you'll excuse me, I have some digging around to do." He left, and I relaxed on the bench. You're right, Admiral. We'll find them, and make them suffer.


	11. Chapter 11: Cerberus

**Chapter 11: Cerberus**

 _February 21st, 2183_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

I set down my drink on my table and leaned back on the couch. I sighed, closed my eyes, and began thinking. We left the Citadel yesterday, and hopefully we'll get some more things done. Just as I began slowly drifting off to sleep, I heard my terminal ping over on my desk. I raised myself up, stretched, and walked over to see what was up.

Apparently, the Council just sent me some intel on some potential missions for me. The message containing the files didn't mention much. I clicked on the first file, and it turned out to be a news clip. "ExoGeni Corp. Denies Reports of Missing Survey Team". Interesting enough. I scrolled down to continue reading. "ExoGeni Corp. is still denying reports that one of their survey teams has gone missing in the Hades Gamma cluster. When asked why communication with the survey team was suddenly cut off last week, company officials refused to comment." Great. Time to find a lost survey team, I guess.

I downloaded the files onto my omnitool, and clicked on the next file in the message. Great, another news clip. I didn't bother reading the headline. The moment I saw "Breaking News", I knew it was going to be bad. "Chairman Burns of the Parliament Subcommittee on Transhuman Studies has been kidnapped by biotic extremists." I knew it. "The biotics commandeered a freighter and were last seen in the Hades Gamma cluster. No demands have yet been made." Jesus, another thing going wrong in the Hades Gamma cluster. I downloaded the file onto my omnitool and closed my terminal. Well, at least this gives me something to do. Not many other developments on Saren and the Geth besides Noveria and Feros. I still have to pick up Dr. T'Soni, too. Great. I knew that being a Spectre would make me busy and all, but not to this point.

I grabbed my drink from the table, opened the door, and walked out to the Mess. I left the unfinished drink on the counter, grabbed a cigarette from my pocket, and began smoking it. Man. All of this is just so stressful. I've forgotten how relieving just having a smoke every now and then is. Just as I was about to go down to the cargo bay, Joker called down over the ship comms. "Commander, I've got a message for you. Just came in over a secure channel." I sighed. Great. "Send it through to my omnitool." I heard him press a few buttons in the background. "Alright Commander, it's been transferred." I opened my omnitool and opened the sound file. The voice I heard was Kahoku's. "Shepard, this is Admiral Kahoku. I found out who set that trap for my men, the ones killed by those thresher maws." He sounded really panicked. What happened? "Damn, I hope you get this message." There was a moment of silence. I heard him breathing heavily in the background. "It was a group called Cerberus. Some sort of human black ops organization. Extremely secretive, only the highest-level brass have intel on it." He took another moment to breathe. "Even Alliance Intelligence lost track of them a few months ago. They dropped right off the grid. Now, nobody has any idea where they went or what they were up to." He paused for a moment. "They're up to no good, Shepard. They're conducting illegal genetic experiments. They're trying to create some kind of super soldier." He was getting more panicked. "I don't have any proof, but I found the coordinates for one of their research worlds. I'm uploading them with the message. They're completely out of control. Somebody needs to stop them. I've done my part. Now, it's up to you." He paused again, and when he began talking, his voice was softer. "This is... this is the last you'll hear from me. Cerberus is after me now. I need to disappear before they find me." The message cut off abruptly following what sounded like yelling. I opened the file with the coordinates, and sent them to Joker. "Joker, take us to those coordinates ASAP. We've gotta see what this is all about." I heard Joker punch in the coordinates, and I felt the ship begin moving faster. "Aye-aye, sir. We'll be there ETA 3 hours."

 _3 hours later_

 _Binthu_

The Mako landed roughly on the surface of the planet. The sky was cloudy, and the atmosphere of the place just seemed... off. Garrus was looking around in the turret. "Negative contacts, Commander. We're free to move." Wrex was checking the map for the locations of the bases. "I've got the first place marked out, Shepard. We should probably get moving. Can't miss the action, am I right?" I chuckled, began driving towards the first location, which was a little less than a kilometer away.

After a rough drive over hills and a small mountain, we reached the first facility. The moment we approached the entrance to the bunker with the Mako, we came under fire from heavy defenses nearby. After a bit of shooting and driving, both turrets had been destroyed. We pulled up to the entrance, and climbed out. We drew our weapons. "Alright. Be prepared to encounter the unknown in here. They're doing some pretty shady stuff, so be careful." I pressed the button, and we entered into the bunker.

The first room was relatively dark, and filled with smoothly cut rocks. For what, I don't know. We made our way across the room, and came to a door on the other side. I hit the button, and the door slammed open. We entered as silent as we could. A large portion of the center of the room had been walled off by a containment field, and we couldn't see what was inside. However, we could hear what sounded like scientists and Cerberus operatives on the other side of the room. We made our way around the side, and what do you know. Cerberus operatives. Wrex began throwing some of them around with his biotics while Garrus was picking them off with his sniper rifle. I tapped him on the shoulder. "Cover me, I'm moving across." He nodded, and kept firing. I peeked out and dashed behind a console nearby. I peeked out, but I saw something peeking out behind some crates. I squinted to see it better. A laser sight aimed on my head. I quickly ducked back behind cover, and saw a round knock over the crates behind me. Fuck, a sniper. I pointed out the sniper's location on my hud, and began firing in that general direction with my pistol. The sniper relocated eventually, and I saw Garrus pick him off as he was moving to a different cover. Eventually, Wrex smashed the last one's head against a wall, and we knew that the room was clear.

We came over to the console controlling the containment field and tried to find any information on what was inside. "Test Subjects 30, 31, 32: Failure". Jesus. I closed the containment field and we finally saw what had happened to the subjects. They had been completely transformed into something like zombies. Their hands had become like talons, and their faces were disfigured. There was blood all over them. They began charging us. It took way too many rounds to put them down. When they were on the ground, we had to put extra rounds in them to make sure that they were actually dead. We began inspecting the bodies, and found that none of them were of Admiral Kahoku. Garrus looked at me after nudging one of the bodies. "He has to be at one of the other labs. Let's keep searching."

It took another long drive and more destroyed turrets for us to reach the next lab. When we got inside, the first room was almost exactly like the first lab's. Why do they need all this stone? I don't know. We might find the answers later. When we came into the next room, it looked the same as the other lab. A containment field was up, and there were Cerberus operatives around the room. We immediately got to work, and the Cerberus operatives were decimated within minutes. I have to admit, these guys are good, but we're better. Wrex was laughing when he blasted the last guy with his shotgun. "This is my kind of mission, Shepard! Makes me feel great!" While Garrus and Wrex searched the bodies, I opened the containment field, expecting to find more of those zombie things. But this time, they were bugs. Rather large bugs. Like, the size of my foot large. They began charging towards me, so we all began firing on them. One of them kept dodging our fire, so Wrex stomped on it hard. Got slime all over his armor, too. Garrus looked around for a moment, and then turned to me. "Kahoku isn't here. Let's get to that next lab. Hopefully he's there."

Again, more driving and more turrets that we had to destroy to reach the last lab. Does Cerberus not even bother making their defenses somewhat unpredicatble? We entered the lab, and like the other two labs, the first room was filled with stone and was dimly lit. And just like the others, the next room had a massive containment field and large amounts of Cerberus operatives. Seriously. They need to change up their defenses every now and then.

We used the same tactics as before. Wrex and I up front, Garrus in the back providing covering fire. It worked as smoothly as before, with Cerberus operatives dropping left and right. I haven't had this much fun in a long time. Reminds me a lot of all the stuff I did back in Philly... anyway, I don't have time to think. I dropped one of the operatives with a headshot, and he fell onto the console controlling the containment field. What was inside was... a massive bug thing? I don't know. Wrex dropped another operative with a blast from his shotgun, and then he noticed the bug thing. It was like he recognized it. "Rachni?!" He charged it, and tackled it to the ground. He ripped off one of its legs, and stabbed it plenty of times with it. He got up, and he was covered in what seemed to be the bug's blood. Garrus and I came over to him. "Rachni? They shouldn't be here." Garrus nudged the corpse with his rifle. "Well, then again, none of us should be." He noticed something behind me. He pushed me aside, and began approaching it with his pistol drawn. "Hey, you! Come out!" I looked behind me. A scientist had hidden from us behind some crates. "Please, don't shoot! I'm unarmed!" Garrus grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him over to the corpse of the Rachni. "Why is this here?" The scientist shook his head. "I have no clue! Please! Don't hurt me!" Garrus raised his gun to strike him across the back of the head, but I shoved him aside. "Garrus, that's not how we go about things!" He sighed. "Commander, there's no other way to get him to talk!" I looked back at the scientist. He was praying to God for mercy. "Let me have a word with him." I knelt down beside him. "Listen, buddy. If you just tell us what's going on here, we'll let you go, ok?" He sniffled. "Ok, ok. We were testing the Rachni. Seeing their effects on humans." He pointed to a corpse nearby. "He was our test subject." I helped the scientist up, and pushed him towards the door. "Go, before we change our minds." He began running towards the exit.

We walked over to the body. He was face down, and wearing an Alliance officer uniform. There were needle marks all over his body. I turned him over, and... my God. It's Kahoku. I knelt down and checked him for a pulse. None. Garrus knelt down as well. "No signs of trauma. He wasn't killed by that Rachni, sir." We stood up, and began walking towards the exit. Wrex snorted. I looked over at him. "What?" "What if we got revenge?" He handed me a datapad. "This was on one of those eggheads. It's the location of another research facility." I took a look at it for a moment. Goddammit. "Just what we needed."


	12. Chapter 12: Revenge

**Chapter 12: Revenge**

 _February 22nd, 2183_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

 _En route to Nepheron_

I've been on edge for the past few hours. Something in my gut tells me that assaulting this research base is going to go wrong in some way. I don't know, maybe I'm just overreacting. Yeah, I'm overreacting. Nothing to worry about. I took a drink from the beer in my hand, and laid back on the couch. I stared at my guitar mounted on the wall. You know, it's been a while since I've played that thing. But nothing beats the old one I had back in Philly. I still remember where all the scratches are on that thing. Good God, it's been a long time. I really need to visit again when this is all over.

I set the beer down on the coffee table, got up, and strolled over to my guitar. Hmm. Never really looked at it before. I picked it up off the stand and began strumming. Sounds good. Feels good, too. But it's just not the same as my old one. I set it back on its mount on the wall, took another good look at it, and left my quarters.

Taking the elevator down to the cargo bay is still just as awfully slow as ever. Seriously. Why don't we either make it a little faster, or replace it with stairs? Because taking some stairs down would be quicker than this mistake of an elevator. Every time I take this thing the wait always seems to take longer. The door opened after what seemed like forever. I stepped out into the cargo bay and saw Garrus fiddling with the Mako again. He's really in love with that thing, isn't he?

He stopped inspecting the Mako to talk to me. "Commander, how are you?" I nodded as I came over to him. "Pretty good, you?" We leaned against the Mako. "Same. You come down here to talk?" I took my cigarette packet out of my pocket, and offered a smoke to Garrus. He shook his head. "Commander, you should probably stop smoking so much." I lit the cigarette in my mouth and blew the smoke into the air. "I know. It's just a habit." I took another drag, and released more smoke into the air. "You know, I'm just wondering, but why did you want to become a C-Sec officer in the first place?" He took a moment to think. "Hm... good question. There are several reasons, I guess." I took the cigarette out of my mouth. "Like what?" He thought again for a moment, and tilted his head. "Eh... probably the same as most officers. Wanting to fight injustice, wanting to help people. I guess my father had something to do with it, too. He was C-Sec. One of the best." I threw the cigarette on the ground, and stomped it out. "I grew up hearing about his accomplishments or seeing his picture on the vids after a big arrest." He paused. "He's taking my resignation pretty hard."

I grabbed another cigarette from my pocket. "That's tough and all, but you'd think he'd be impressed you're going after Saren." I put it in my mouth, and lit it. "My father's a C-Sec man to the bone. 'Do things right, or don't do them at all,' he says. He thinks I'm behing too rash, too impatient. He's worried I'll become just like Saren. He actually talked me out of becoming a Spectre when I was younger, and for the same reasons, too." I widened my eyes. "You were asked to be a Spectre?" He shrugged. "Well, I was targeted as a possible Spectre candidate along with about a thousand other turian military recruits. I could've received special training, but my father didn't like it. He despises the Spectres. He hates the idea of someone having unlimited power with no accountability. He wouldn't like you, Commander. No offense, of course." I blew more smoke out. "I suppose I can understand his concern." Garrus looked at me with some sort of disbelief. "You can? But Saren's not going to play by our rules, C-Sec's rules. If you want to nail Saren, you need to send someone who isn't restricted by policies and procedures." I sighed. Great. This again. "Just because you can break the rules doesn't mean you should, Garrus. I don't need to stoop to Saren's level to stop him. Neither do you." He thought for a moment. "I see what you mean, but... you know what? I'll think about it."

There was a moment of silence between us. After some time, he decided to pick up the conversation again. "So, what about your father? Is he just as moral as you and my father?" I stopped smoking for a moment, and just stared into the distance. "Commander?" I looked back at him. "I never knew my father. He was killed when I was way younger." I took another drag. "His death is part of the reason I left Earth." Garrus looked away for a moment. "Oh. I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't disturb you about it. Besides, the Mako isn't going to calibrate itself." I began walking away. "Yeah. Maybe you're right."

 _A few hours later_

 _Nepheron_

Again, another long ride towards the facility. Wrex sighed. "Why aren't we just dropped closer to the target?" Ashley ducked down from the turret. "Because we might be in more danger if we're any closer?" Wrex shrugged. "So? That'd make it more fun." Ashley ignored him, and kept manning the turret.

After the long drive over mountains, we finally reached the facility. Guess what? Same defenses as the other labs. Cerberus really isn't that original with their base defenses, are they? After destroying the defenses in a matter of seconds, we parked in front of the entrance and dismounted. We drew our weapons as we entered through the door into the bunker.

The first room was exactly like the other facilities. Smoothly cut stones placed all around the room. Again, why? I don't know. We entered the next room, and thank God it was a change. There was no containment field, and there appeared to be more Cerberus operatives than before. This could actually be pretty fun. We all grabbed some cover as we came under fire from the various operatives around the room. They kept trying to assault our position, but each time they tried, they failed. I watched as Wrex blasted one who tried to vault over his cover. "Haha! I need to do this more!" He came out of his cover, and charged one into the wall. Ashley continued suppressing those already behind cover with her assault rifle so that Wrex and I could get up close and force them into close combat. As good as these guys were with guns, they weren't so good at hand-to-hand combat. Especially when being pitted against a krogan and an Alliance soldier with years of experience in combat. Eventually, they were all on the ground either mortally wounded or dead. Ashley formed up on us, and we entered into an office in the back.

There were no hostiles in the back office. It seems like they thought they could stop us at the front door, and didn't both to defend whatever important business they had back here. A console was open on the desk in front of us. "You two go make sure that Cerberus doesn't send any reinforcements." Ashley nodded, and both of them walked out.

I went around the side of the desk and sat in the chair. The console was already unlocked, which made taking whatever information was inside a much easier task. I moved the mouse over the icon for the database, and clicked on it. Immediately, the computer started chiming, and a message popped up on the screen. Fuck! The database is erasing itself! Before the computer could completely wipe the database, I copied as many files as I could onto my omnitool. The computer eventually shut down the moment the database was wiped. I checked the files on my omnitool, and saw that they were all encrypted. _All_ encrypted. As in hundreds of files that need to be cracked, and each one probably taking forever. But then again, I have lots of time to do it, right?

 _Three days later_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

Fuck. It's taken me three days to crack only a fifth of the files. After cracking another file, and uploading it to a hard drive, I leaned back in my chair. I still can't believe that I've been in my quarters for three days working this long on my computer. I took another drink from my coffee, and began cracking the next file. My God, I need a break. Wait. Why haven't I asked Tali to help? Come on, Lucas. She's pretty much only worked on the drive core this whole time. I made my way out of my quarters and towards the elevator.

Again, another long elevator ride. I swear, if there was a God, he'd make these things faster so people don't have to suffer from the crippling depression they cause. The door opened after what seemed like hours, and I turned the corner to go into engineering.

To my surprise, engineering was less alive than usual. Even during the later hours, it's usually very vibrant. I noticed Tali at her console as usual, working as hard as she ever does. She didn't notice me at first when I came over to talk to her. She paused whatever she was working on, and turned to me. "Oh, hey, Shepard." She sounded a little down. "Are you ok?" She began rubbing her hands together. "I don't know. Your ship's amazing, and your crew's been really great to me. Especially your chief engineer, and... well... you. But I just sort of feel... out of place." I leaned against the railing. "In what way?" She leaned on the railing with her elbows, looking at the drive core. "The Normandy runs so smooth it feels like we're not even moving, and the engines are so quiet." She looked up at me. "How do you sleep at night?" I raised my eyebrow. "The silence wakes you up?" "Well, back on the flotilla, the last thing you want to hear is silence. It means an egnine's died or an air filter's shut down. I guess you don't have to worry about that here, but old habits die hard." She got up from the rail. "It's more than just the silence. This ship feels so... empty. It's like half the crew is missing. I couldn't wait to go on my Pilgrimage. I couldn't wait to get away from the crowds. Now that I'm out here, I kind of miss them." I thought for a moment. "I know how you feel. I left Earth to get away from my old life. But sometimes, we don't appreciate what we have until it's gone." She turned around, put her console to sleep mode, and turned back to me. "I'm starting to wonder if that's what the Pilgrimage is really about. It's given me a whole new perspective on my people and our culture." She seemed to relax for a moment, and looked back at the drive core. "You know, there's always a few who go on their Pilgrimages and never return. I always assumed something bad happened to them." She looked at me. "But maybe they just wanted a different life." "You do plan to return to the Migrant Fleet, right?" Tali leaned against the railing next to me. "I'd never abandon my people, Shepard. I will go back eventually. But we have to stop Saren first. Otherwise I might not have a home to go back to." I nodded. "Same here."

I opened my omnitool. "Anyway, I came down here to ask for some help cracking some files. Care to join me?" I don't know if it's just the lighting on her, but she seemed to give me that made my heart stop. "I'd love to." I raised my eyebrow. She stood up, and began rubbing her hands nervously together. "Oh, I didn't mean it like that. I mean... ok." Well. That happened. I led her out the door, and back into the elevator.

Goddammit. God abandoned us because of these elevators, didn't he? But then again, being in an elevator with Tali isn't so bad. I took a look at her. To be honest, she looks pretty cute. Lucas, what are you doing? She's technically underage, according to her people! Anyway, the elevator opened, and I led her into my quarters.

I showed her the files on my computer. "See? Hundreds more to go. Think you could help?" She looked at me again. "Of course, Commander." I detected that tone in her voice again. Does she...? No. Probably not. Besides, it'd be wrong anyway. She began typing, and I didn't bother disturbing her. At least until she began talking to me. "Commander, could I get a new place to sleep?" I raised me eyebrow. "Uh... sure? Cargo Bay? It's loud enough for you there." She looked at me for a moment. "Sure." Wow. She's actually taking the cargo bay rather than the crew quarters. "Alright, I'll get your stuff moved down there as soon as possible." She kept working, and it took what felt like forever. I had already kinda fallen asleep on the couch when she said, "Finished." I got up, and checked the files. They were all cracked. "Damn, you're quick." She shrugged. "It's just what I do." I couldn't help but smile. "You've got a talent. Anyway, I'm fine for now. I've got some things to do." She turned to leave. "See you later, Commander." That hint of something in her voice again. It's tearing my heart apart.

I reviewed the files. All stuff on Cerberus' projects and crimes. Goddamn. As I was reviewing the files, Joker called down on the comms. "Commander, we've got a transmission coming in. I'm patching it through now." There was a moment of static while transferring. "Greeting, Commander Shepard. I represent a party interested in obtaining information on Cerberus activities." What? How does he know what we've found. "Who are you, and who do you represent?" "Who I am is inconsequential. Suffice to say, I am an agent for the Shadow Broker." The Shadow Broker. Great. Just fucking great. "You see, Admiral Kahoku contacted my employer looking for information on the location of any Cerberus facilities. We provided that information on the promise that he would turn over copies of all files gathered from the Cerberus systems to us." What the fuck? That's borderline treason. "Did you have anything to do with Admiral Kahoku ending up dead?" "We had no reason to harm him. He was going to provide us with information about Cerberus. Information that is now in your possession." Fuck. Again, how does he know any of this? "These are classified Alliance files. I'm not handing them over to you." There was a pause. "Be reasonable, Commander. Cerberus operates outside Alliance jurisdiction. You don't owe them any loyalty. The Alliance is just going to file this information away in some archive. But no secret stays hidden forever. Eventually, someone somewhere will deliver it into our hands. It might as well be you. Transmit the files to us, and you will be well compensated." No way. Not unless I know what they're doing. "What are you going to do with this information?" "Information is a commodity. It can be bought, sold, or traded. Why my employer desires this information is not my concern. I am only the buyer." No. No way. "My loyalty is to the Alliance, not the Shadow Broker." "That is unfortunate, Commander. My employer will remember this the next time you need something from us." The transmission shut off. Probably not, but who knows.


	13. Chapter 13: Hostage

**Chapter 13: Hostage**

 _February 27th, 2183_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

I watched from behind as Joker docked the Normandy with the MSV Ontario. This was the ship where Chairman Burns was being held. Kaidan and Ashley were already waiting outside the airlock, guns ready. Once the Normandy was safely docked, Joker turned around in his chair. "Alright, Commander. You're free to go through." He turned back to the controls, and Kaidan, Ashley, and I entered through the airlock into the MSV Ontario.

The first room we entered was a rather small cargo storage room. There were crates scattered everywhere, and it was clear that there had been fighting here. We proceeded out into the hallway, and turned right towards the bridge. However, when we entered into the cargo bay, my radar began filling up with contacts all around the room. Great. This was going to be a damn hard fight. There were large crates stacked all around, and they formed a path towards the center of the room. We made our way through as quietly as we could. When we came out the end of the path, one of the biotic terrorists noticed us.

He began running back. "Intruders! Kill the hostage!" I put a bullet in his head before he could get away. We were already rushing to cover to avoid their biotic attacks. "We've got to get in there before they execute the Chairman!" Kaidan threw a terrorist across the room. As we began clearing a path across the room, we tried to make a break for the door. However, we were all knocked into a set of crates by their biotics. I got up, and sprayed rounds in their direction. I hit one of them in the head, and watched him drop onto one of his friends. Ashley fired a round into what seemed to be the last one's head, and we began moving towards the door to the front of the ship. But then I heard a movement behind us, so we turned around to face the threat. There was one left, so Kaidan lifted him up and slammed him into the ground. I put a round into his head to make sure he was dead. Now that they were all dead, we ran over to the door, and entered into the small hallway.

There were signatures popping up on my radar in the room to our left, so we stacked up on the door. We breached the room, and found more biotic terrorists inside. We would've opened fire if one of them wasn't holding a shotgun to Chairman Burns' head. "See how it is? You write letters, and everyone ignores you. Force is the only thing people appreciate. So, how about I kill Chairman Burns and finish this charade?" Burns turned his head to look up at him. "Please! I was trying to help you people!" I looked at both Ashley and Kaidan, and holstered my pistol. "Look, let's not do anything we're all going to regret." The "leader" of the terrorists snorted. "Why not? What have we got to lose? Since the Chairman here decided that we didn't get reparations, we've got nothing left to live for!" Burns began stammering. "But I've changed my mind! Seeing y-you all, it's c-clear that you all d-deserve..." The leader pushed his shotgun harder into Burns' head. "You had your chance! Some L2s are nearly crippled from side effects of the implants, but you voted against reparations!" I sighed. "Think about this. Burns is the one man who can help you, and you'd just kill him?" Burns nodded. "Yes! If you release me, I can take another look at the reparations request!" The leader leaned down. "What, we're just supposed to trust you?" Kaidan stepped forward. "I'm an L2, just like you. Trust me. The Commander here can make sure that Burns follows through." The leader snapped at us. "Sure, you promise us freedom and say everything will be fine, but as soon as we surrender, you'll double-cross us all!" I stopped him. "Hey, I'm not promising to let you go. All I'm saying is that Burns will take another look. Right, Burns?" Burns nodded again. "Absolutely! I had no idea that the L2 biotics were this desperate. If I had known... well, the reparations will come. For whatever it's worth, I promise that." The leader thought for a while, and put away his shotgun. "You're right. I don't want to die. Maybe something might actually happen this time. We surrender." Burns got up, and came over to us. "Thank you, Commander. I thought I was dead when they took me. I'll see to it that the reparations discussion is reopened. I didn't know they were so desperate." I opened my omnitool and sent a message to Admiral Hackett requesting a cruiser to come pick them up. "A 5th Fleet cruiser will be by shortly to pick you and the others up." Burns bowed. "Thank you again, Commander."

 _A day later..._

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

I saw Ashley in the mess as I was leaving my quarters. I didn't expect to talk to her, but she called over to me. "Commander, you have a minute to talk?" I came over and sat down next to her. "Well, I keep an open-door policy. If you have any concerns, lay them on me." She looked around. "Alright then." She lowered her voice to nearly a whisper. "I know things are different aboard the Normandy, but I'm concerned about the aliens. Vakarian, Wrex, Tali. With all due respect, Commander, should they have full access to the ship?" Dammit. But then again, this is to be expected. "They may not serve the Alliance, Chief, but they're allies. At least, as far as Saren goes." She looked around again. "This is the most advanced ship in the Alliance Navy. I don't think we should give them free reign to poke around the vital systems. You know, engines, sensors, weapons." I stood up, and grabbed a cup of water from the counter. "You don't trust the Alliance's allies?" I sat back down.

"I'm not sure I'd call the Council races 'allies'. We - humanity, I mean - have to learn to rely on ourselves." I took a sip from the cup. "Standing up for ourselves doesn't mean standing alone." "I don't think we should turn down allies, I just think we shouldn't bet everything on them _staying_ allies. As noble as the Council members seem now, if their backs are against the wall, they'll abandon us." I snickered. "Well, you've got quite a pessimistic view of the universe, Williams." She smiled. "A pessimist is what an optimist calls a realist." She got serious again. "Look, if you're fighting a bear, and the only way for you to survive is to sic your dog on it and run, you'll do it. As much as you love your dog, it isn't human." She held up her hands to stop me before I began talking. "It's not racism. Not really. Members of their species will always be more important to them than humans are." I took another drink. "These seem like deeply-held beliefs, Williams. What made you think this way?" "My family's defended the Alliance since it was founded. My father, grandfather, great-grandmother - they all picked up a rifle and swore the Oath of Service. I guess we just tend to think of Earth's interests as our own." We sat in silence for a moment as I drank.

"What about your family, sir?" I set the cup down on the table. "I never knew my real family. I grew up in Philly as an... orphan. Anybody in your family I'd have heard of?" She thought for a moment. "Couldn't say, Commander. So, why are you out here? Just trying to get away from Earth?" I didn't want to really tell her what happened. As good as she looks, I still don't know her _that_ well. Well, I'll just have to lie for now. "Mainly. I wanted to serve. Protect the Alliance, save lives. You know." She smiled again. "Glad to hear it. I'd hate to think you're out here for a free college education." I took another drink from the cup. "You know, I can see where your concerns are coming from, Williams. But this is a multilateral mission. You're going to have to work with aliens, like it or not." "It won't be a problem, Commander. You say 'jump', I say 'how high'. You tell me to kiss a turian, I'll ask 'which cheek'." I noticed the cup was empty, and set it on the table. "Would you kiss anyone I ordered you to?" What the fuck did you just say? I know she's good looking and all, but seriously. Don't get too obvious. "That depends, sir. If you ordered me to kiss a superior officer, that would be a violation of the regs concerning fraternization. That would make it an illegal order. I'd be required to decline, and relieve you of command." Oh. Fine by me, for now. I stood up, and set my cup on the counter. "We'll talk later, Williams." I saw her smile. "Looking forward to it, Commander."


	14. Chapter 14: Trebin

**Chapter 14: Trebin**

 _March 1st, 2183_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

 _En route to Trebin_

After spending a few hours doing some paperwork in my quarters, I decided to go down to the Cargo Bay. It was empty, except for Wrex cleaning his guns as usual. You know what, I have a lot of time. I'll talk to him. I walked over, and he turned to look at me. "So, we've got Saren on the run." I chuckled. "It won't be long now. Saren's good, but I'm better." Wrex snorted. "Good? He's rotten. To the core. I could tell as soon as I met him." Wait. What? He knew Saren? I crossed my arms. "Why didn't you tell me that you knew Saren earlier?" He shrugged. "I would've if I'd thought it was important." "I think I'd like to hear about it just the same." He set his shotgun down on the work table.

"This was a while ago. A bunch of mercs were bragging about a job out near the edges of the Terminus Systems. They said it paid well and the boss was never around to ride them. They also said he was looking for more men. So, I checked it out." I'm pretty surprised to be honest. And this is kind of a stupid move for Saren. Leaves loose ends. "I didn't know Saren was openly recruiting mercs." Wrex kept going. "It wasn't that open, and he only showed his face once. We'd been raiding ships in the area for months when we took out this massive cargo freighter. It was supposed to be our biggest haul yet." He stopped for a moment to place his shotgun back in his locker. "I was on board checking bodies for valuables, looking for some extra credits, you know? That's when I saw him." I leaned against the work table next to him. "What did Saren want with the ship?" Wrex continued. "I don't know what he wanted. He was just moving through the ship, watching us work. A couple of the other mercs called him by name, but he never spoke to them. Never spoke to anyone. I had a really bad feeling about him, so I got the hell out. Didn't even wait to get paid."

I looked away for a moment. Damn. "Who's ship was it?" "It was a volus trading vessel. Big one, lots of guards. But they were no match for us." Hm. Not that unusual. What would Saren want with a volus trading vessel...? "What kind of cargo was the freighter carrying? What was Saren after?" Wrex shut his locker. "I don't know. All I saw on that ship was food and medical supplies. There were some basic weapons, but nothing big. If there was anything of value on that ship, I didn't see it. That's why I didn't mention it sooner." So, this was supposed to be a big haul. But there wasn't anything of value on the ship? Why would they attack it? "You sure that was the only time you saw him?" "Didn't even know who he was. Still wouldn't if I hadn't joined up with you. But my instincts were right. Every other merc on that mission turned up dead within a week. Every damn one." Shit. I pretty much saved Wrex's life by taking him in, I guess. "I better get going, Wrex. We're getting close to Trebin." He didn't say anything, and began cleaning his pistol.

 _A few hours later..._

 _Trebin_

Ashley, Kaidan and I had been driving over the dunes of this planet for what seemed like hours. Our map had been scrambled, and the positioning system on our huds were going nuts. Finally, as we drove over a massive hill, we saw the research post below. Ashley scanned the place with her turret. "Looks like nobody's home." I parked the Mako in the center of the small compound, and we dismounted. It was eerily quiet.

We searched two of the three buildings only to find absolutely no sign of anyone. The final building had an active computer inside, so being me, I examined it. Kaidan had a look, too. "According to these data logs, the survey team unearthed some kind of alien technology." Ashley pointed out the spot of the excavation site on our huds. "Could be answers at the excavation site, Commander. Recommend checking it out." I nodded, and led us back into the Mako.

Another short drive later, and we were at the excavation site. It was deserted on the outside, too. We dismounted, drew our guns, and proceeded down the walkway/shaft into the excavation site. The first room we entered was lightly flooded, and extremely dirty. Jesus Christ, how do they even work in these conditions? Before I opened the massive door to the main chamber of the cavern, I saw a whole lot of contacts show up on my radar. We readied our guns and opened the door.

Husks were everywhere. We began firing the moment they noticed us enter the room. They stood almost no chance charging against us, but being pretty much zombies, they don't really have any common sense. They kept dropping left and right as we emptied round after round into the horde. Kaidan launched the horde across the room with his biotics, which allowed us to move out into the open. There was... something... in the center of the room with a glowing orb in it. I don't know. I didn't have enough time to examine it. We kept firing into the horde until all the husks were lying dead on the ground.

After making sure that they were all actually dead, we moved to the other end of the chamber, where there were two other doors. Both were locked. "Watch me while I open these." Kaidan and Ashley turned around and watched towards where we came from. I opened my omnitool, scanned the locks, and tried unlocking them. But the moment I tried, they unlocked. Kaidan and Ashley turned around, and watched as the doors opened to another horde of husks. We began firing again, and ran back to the other side of the room. Good God, where are they all coming from?! So many contacts were popping up on my radar that I could barely keep up. Eventually, I noticed that their numbers were thinning, and signalled for the others to move up. We kept firing until the last one hit the ground.

I pointed towards the two doors at the other end. "You guys cover those doors. I don't want any more of those things attacking us." They nodded, and ran across the room to cover the doors. Now I had time to inspect this thing. It was in the shape of a claw, and it looked... oddly familiar. The glowing orb in the center was familiar, too. One of the bodies had landed near the claw. I knelt down, and inspected the mangled corpse. What's this? There was a torn bit of cloth that seemed burned onto the body. I took a closer look at it. It looked like a part of the ExoGeni Corp. symbol. Damn. So we just killed the entire research team. Great. I looked around the cavern. There were those spike devices from Eden Prime scattered in the corners of the room. How did they get here so far from Geth territory? Who knows. We'll find out at some point.

When I came back to the claw thing, Kaidan was inspecting it. "I've heard of this. Machine cultists. They unearth some kind of alien technology, and it turns them into mindless fanatics." He nudged the body at his feet. "Poor bastards."

 _The next day_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

I jerked myself awake in a cold sweat. Goddammit, I had that nightmare again! And I was just starting to not have them any more. I wiped off some of the sweat with my sheet, and laid back down on the bed. I want to go back to sleep, but I know I'll just have that nightmare again. Ugh. Being a Spectre is stressful. I checked my omnitool for the time. 0230?! Fuck. I laid back down, and closed my eyes.

I was startled when the door to my quarters opened. I jumped a little, and covered as much of my body as I could. I squinted to see who it was. Oh great, it was Tali. Even with the suit on she looked embarassed. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Shepard. I should probably come back later." I held my hand up. "No, it's fine. What do you need?" She held up a datapad. "I just have a report to drop off." I nodded towards the desk. "Just leave it there." She walked over and left it on the desk, all the while staring at me. "You ok, Tali?" She jumped a little, and backed away rubbing her hands nervously. "I'm sorry. Oh, keelah this is embarassing." She backed out of my quarters with a certain quickness.

Well, that was awkward. I laid back on my bed and shut my eyes. Does she have something for me? No. Probably not. After all, I'm a human. What happened was just an honest mistake that I can forgive. Besides, you have Ash. I rolled over, and drifted off to sleep.


	15. Chapter 15: Old Friend

**Chapter 15: Old Friend**

 _March 4th, 2183_

 _Chora's Den, The Citadel_

It's nice to have some down time. Especially after my first cruise as a Spectre. Sitting here at the bar, I've done almost nothing except watch the dancers and drink. Of course, not drinking so much that I'd be impaired in any way. I took another swig from my beer, and set it down on the counter. I heard a ping on my omnitool and checked to see what it was. Wait, what? This can't be real. No way. The sender? Finch. It's been years since I've seen him. And by now, he must've deleted my contact. I opened the message. "I know you're in there. Come out, we need to talk." Oh boy. I got up from the stool, and left the club.

When I stepped out, there was no one there. I kept my hand on my pistol, expecting some sort of trap. After all, that's an easy way to trap me. Send me a fake message from an old friend, and that in theory should get my guard down. But no, I'm not that stupid. I kept walking towards the path to the nearby markets when I heard a voice from behind me. "Smarts?" I turned around, and what do you know. Finch.

I approached him. "Finch?" We embraced. "They told me it was you, but I didn't believe it." We let go of each other, and he took a good look at me. "You really grew up, Smarts. Take a walk?" I nodded, and we began walking towards the markets. "I remember the day you left. Wondered where I'd gone wrong, what I'd done to make you leave." He looked at me again. There were some tears in his eyes. "Turns out I did nothing. My God, you've grown up well." I took some time to examine him, too. There were some scars across the lower part of his face. "Finch, don't mind me asking, but where'd you get the scars?" Finch chuckled. "I was about to ask you the same thing. What happened?" He stopped me from answering. "Nevermind, just remembered. Saw all the vids about you and what happened on Akuze. Must've been pretty bad." I nodded. "It was. Lost my whole squad. I still can't get over it." He patted patted me on the back. "Don't worry, Smarts. You will in time." He looked away for a moment. "We lost some good people back home, too." He looked back at me, and we kept walking.

"So, how's the soldier life for ya, Smarts?" I shrugged. "So-so. How's Bone?" The smile on Finch's face faded, and we stopped. "Well... he's gotten into some problems with the turians. Probably something with red sand." He looked around. "Look. I hate to ask you this, but you're a Spectre. Nobody disobeys an order from a Spectre. Would you use that power to get Bone out of trouble?" I sighed. Damn. I shook my head. "Finch, as much as I like you and the Reds, I can't do this. I don't roll with you guys any more." He looked disappointed. "Look, can you please do it for old times' sake? Just ask for a 'Curt Weisman' to one of his guards, who's in Chora's Den right now. Please." I sighed again. "Finch, I can't. I've changed. I've got new things to do, new people to work with." I saw a tear come out of Finch's eye. "You've changed, alright." He sniffled a bit. "Anyway, how about we properly catch up. I've got something waiting for you." I raised an eyebrow. "What is it?" He took a moment to think. "Well, it's a couple of things. You'll like both of them." I shrugged. What harm can there be in this? "Sure. Let's go." We began walking towards the dock where his ship was.

After a long walk, we arrived at his ship. "Hold on, I've gotta get them. I'll be back." He entered his ship, and I stood around waiting for him. There's a chance that this could be a trap, but I'd much rather be killed by Finch than anyone else. After a while of standing around and doing nothing, I saw Finch come out with a couple rather large packages. He set them down in front of me. "Anyway, here we have 'em. Go ahead, open both." I knelt down, and using my combat knife stowed away in my boot, I cut open the first box. I dug through all the protection inside, and... my God. I pulled an old Earth pistol of the box. "Like it? It's a Colt M1911. I know you used to be into this kind of stuff, so after doing some digging, I found one. There's a couple of mags in the box." I pulled the two spare mags out of the box. "Oh, and the ammo? That's up to you to get. Sorry." I rolled my eyes. "Should be easy, considering I'm a Spectre." He pointed to the other box. "Go ahead and open it." I set the pistol and mags back in the box, and opened the other. Holy shit. I haven't seen this in forever! My old guitar! I lifted it out of the box with a smile on my face. "I knew you'd want it, Smarts. I had to pull some strings to get this back from the military. You were forced to give it up on the Moon, right? Well, it went through this whole system, and it was stored in an Alliance warehouse. I sent some boys to get it, and, well, you can see what happened." I can't believe it. You know, I might owe Finch some favors after all. "Thank you. Really, thank you." Finch smiled and nodded. "The pleasure's mine. I'll get all this stuff over to the Normandy. Meet me at Chora's Den later."

 _Later, in Chora's Den_

"... so, what's the Normandy like?" I took another drink from my beer. "I'm afraid that's all classified, man." He nudged me. "Come on, relax. At least tell me about the crew." I chuckled. "Well, I don't think you'd like it." He raised an eyebrow. "Why?" I scratched my back. "Well, I've got aliens on board." He set down his drink. "You let aliens onto a top secret Alliance ship? What're you thinking?" I shrugged. "They're useful, and they aren't bad people. You need to chill out about aliens." He sighed, and looked up at the dancer above. "Never liked aliens. They're the scum of the galaxy, and-" I stopped him. "Careful saying that here. You'll be dead in no time if you keep saying shit like that." He rolled his eyes. "Fine. Hey, that guard's right over there. Mind talking to him?" Great. Well, I guess I have to at least try. "Sure." I got up, and walked over to the turian guard.

"Can I help you?" I checked to make sure that Finch wasn't watching. He was, alright. I leaned in. "Listen. That human over there, Finch? He wanted me to use my Spectre authority to free a guy, Curt Weisman." The guard crossed his arms. "The xenophobe? I should've known he'd have friends. He started spewing shit a few days ago about 'Terra Firma' and human supremacy in the markets. He also caused a lot of trouble in local bars and such. He isn't the kind of person you want running loose." Yep, sounded a lot like Bone. Distaste for aliens? Check. Hanging around in bars and starting fights? Check. Yeah, it's Bone. "Thank you for the information. We'll increase the guard on his cell." I heard Finch come up from behind. "What the hell, Shepard? You lost your heart for the Reds? We've helped you get this far! We're the reason you're here right now!" He started sobbing. "I raised you, Smarts. Bone raised you, Smarts. Don't you have anything for the Reds any more?!" He grabbed me by the collar, and the guard backed away a little. "Lucas, what if I told everyone about your history with us? What would that do, hm?! How would that make you feel? Sorry? Well, all the aliens are gonna know what the first human Spectre _really_ is. A liar and a backstabber."

I punched Finch in the gut, and watched as he collapsed to the ground in pain. I held him down to the ground, grabbed my knife, and moved it to his neck. "Finch, I've changed, and so have you. What happened to _you_? Terra Firma? Is that how far you've taken your hatred?" I punched him across the face with the knife still in my hand. "Are you even listening?!" Finch coughed up some blood. "Fuck you, Lucas." I punched him again. "I don't want to do this, Finch. But you're not the person I knew. Now, here's some advice. If you want humanity to be strong, a smear attack on the first human Spectre is a terrible idea. This is humanity's chance to prove itself, and there's even talk of earning a Council seat. Are you sure you want to ruin that?" I held the knife to his face. "Hm? And how does it feel to be on the receiving end of a beating? Not too good, huh?" I punched him again. "Well, go tell your buddies in Terra Firma that we need the others races to bolster humanity. And tell them to go fuck themselves, too." I let go of him, and he got up. He spit blood in my face. "Smarts, you always had a soft spot for the scum. I should've kicked you out back on the street for hanging out with that turian fuck years ago. Look how much it's changed you." He tried to grab me again, so I slashed him across the face with a knife. He recoiled, and was holding his face with both of his hands. "Finch, if that's the way you want it to be, then maybe I'm not a Red any more. Maybe I was never a Red for all those years in your eyes." Finch tried to speak, but it was muffled under his hands. I could still make it out. "This is how I'm repayed for raising you. I'm sorry I ever knew you." He walked out, some of his blood dripping onto the floor as he walked.

The guard turned to me. "That man is a xenophobe who thinks he can blackmail a Spectre. You should've killed him while you had the chance." I wiped some tears from my eyes. "I couldn't kill him. I've known him too long. Or, at least I used to know him." I began to leave. "Besides, that's not the way I work." The guard called to me. "Goodbye, human. It will be interesting to see what kind of Spectre you turn out to be." Yeah, yeah. A Spectre who lets his past control him.

 _Aboard the Normandy_

"Shepard, are you alright?" Garrus began following me back to the mess. "No." I grabbed a beer from the fridge. "Want something?" Garrus thought for a moment, then shook his head. I sat down across from him. "What happened, Commander?" I sighed, and looked down at my drink. I took a quick drink. "An encounter with a face from my past." Garrus leaned back. "Who?" I zoned out for a moment, and then spoke. "The man who raised me." Garrus looked at me. "Father?" I shook my head. "My parents died when I was young enough to not remember it." Garrus leaned in. "Have any interesting stories?" I took another drink.

"Well, I once came to the Citadel before to find my brother. Except that, well, I didn't know he was my brother yet. You see, he'd given me to a gang to repay my family's debts to them, and run away. This was when we were both really young." I took a drink. "So, have you heard of a krogan mercenary by the name of 'Krag'?" Garrus nodded. "In fact, yes. Interesting case. He and his mercenaries were nearly wiped out in a restaurant in the wards. Only a few people survived, and he wasn't one of them." I took another swig from my beer. "Well, he died helping me find my brother. There was a salarian, Larus, who might've known where he was." I set the beer down on the table. "Krag and I kidnapped him, and he covered me as I made my way to safety. Nearly died, too." Garrus was staring blankly at the table. "Interesting. Explains a lot of what happened." I nodded. "I've changed a lot since then. I've tried to make myself a better person." Garrus looked at me. "From what I can tell, you're the most moral person I know." I nodded again. "Oh yeah, and that guy brought me a gift." I got up, and went into my quarters.

There it was on my couch. Both boxes. I opened the box with the pistol, and examined it for a moment. It was sleek, smooth, and clean. A real masterpiece, if you ask me. I brought it out into the mess to show Garrus. I left it on the table for him to see. "An old Earth pistol. Have a look, if you want." Garrus picked it up, and began inspecting it. "Pretty old. Where'd he get it?" I shrugged. "I don't know." Garrus set it back down on the table after fiddling with it plenty. We both sat down.

"Anyway, you've been with C-Sec a while. Have you seen much action?" Garrus thought for a moment. "Well, not as much as you, but yeah, I've seen some interesting things." I took a drink from my beer. "I bet you have. Anything in particular that stands out?" Garrus paused again. "I remember this salarian geneticist I was sent to investigate. That case was a bit... uh... disturbing." I leaned back. "Oh, what happened? Why were you investigating him?" "I was tasked with tracking black market trade on the Citadel. Most of it's harmless, nothing I needed to pursue. But during the course of my investigation, I noticed an increase in the trade of body parts. Organs, mostly. We usually get a few of those, but not the numbers I was seeing. We weren't sure if there was a new black market lab, or if some freak was harvesting organs from citizens." I took another drink. "So what was it?" "Both, actually, but it took us a while to figure that out." My God, that's sick. "So how did you figure out what was happening?" Garrus continued. "First, we got a hold of a sample and ran DNA tests. The weird thing was, the match led us to a turian who was still alive and was very convinced he'd never lost his liver. After a bit of digging, I discovered this turian worked briefly for Dr. Saleon, a geneticist. So, I went to his lab, hoping to find evidence of cloned organ development. But there was nothing. No salarian hearts, no turian livers, not one krogan testicle." Wait, what? "You're kidding, right? Why would anyone want krogan testicles?" Garrus thought for a moment. "Well... some krogan believe that testicle transplants can increase their virility and counteract the effects of the genophage. It doesn't work, but that doesn't stop them from buying. They'll pay up to 10,000 credits each. That's 40,000 for a full set." He stopped, and stared into space. After a while, he finally said, "Somebody's making a killing out there."

I took another drink. "What did you do about the geneticist?" Garrus looked back at me. "I brought in some of his employees for interrogation to see if I could get them to talk. While I was 'interviewing' one of them, I came across something suspicious." I stopped him. "You mean threatening. Was that really necessary?" Garrus shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it paid off. One of my detainees started bleeding profusely during the interview. We offered to patch him up and he got frantic. Freaked out, you know? I ordered a full exam to find out what was going on. Our medics found incisions all over his body, some of them fresh. This was our big break. These people weren't just Dr. Saleon's employees. They were test tubes. Walking, living test tubes." Good God. "He was growing parts _inside_ these people?" Garrus nodded. "Exactly. He cloned their organs right inside their own bodies. Then, he harvested them and sold them off. Most of the victims were poor. He'd pay them each a small percentage of the sales, but only if the organs were good. Sometimes an organ wouldn't grow perperly, so he'd just elave it in them. Most of them were a mess, but only on the inside - hidden so nobody could see it." That's brutal. No one deserves that.

"I hope he got what he deserved." Garrus sighed. "That's the worst part. We never caught him." What? I leaned forward. "Why not? What the hell happened?" "He ran. Blew his lab, grabbed some of his employees, and headed for the nearest space dock. By the time I found out, his ship was already leaving. He threatened to kill his hostages if we tried to stop him." I took another drink. "But, knowing you, you went after him anyway, right?" Garrus shook his head. "I ordered Citadel defense to shoot him down, but C-Sec headquarters countermanded my order. They were worried about the hostages. Worried about civilians casualties if the ship was destroyed so close to the Citadel. I told them those hostages were dead anyway. He'd just use them to make more organs. But they wouldn't listen." Tough situation, but C-Sec was right. "It's not worth the risk. You purse the vessel and disable it. That's the best choice I see you could've done." Garrus continued. "They sent the military after him, but he got away just the same. I went to Pallin and told him what I thought of him and his policies. He said if I didn't like it, I could quit. I almost did. All they had to do was disable that ship, stop him from running. Maybe the hostages die, maybe they don't. But at least we stop the bastard responsible for it all." Oh boy. Sounding like Saren again. "If you don't care about the fate of those hostages, then you're no better than he is. You're just a terrorist with a badge." Garrus stopped for a moment, and just stared into space. "Yeah. Maybe you're right. It doesn't make it any easier, but I see your point. I wish I could've stopped him, that's all."

Man. This must've been tough for him. "Do you have any idea what happened to Dr. Saleon?" Garrus looked at me again. "I sent out feelers from time to time, hoping to find something. I thought I'd found him a while back. He'd changed ships and changed his anem to Dr. Heart - his idea of a joke, I guess. I told the military, but they weren't convinced it was him. I got the transponder frequency for his new ship, but I just can't get anyone to check it out." Yeah, he could use some help. I need to help him get over this. "You know what, I'll check out the coordinates when I get a chance." Garrus smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that." He grew serious again. "But take me with you when you go. If it is Saleon, I want to be there when you find him." I stood up and stretched. "Well, I've got a couple of things to do. I'll see you around." I turned around and went into my quarters.


	16. Chapter 16: Incursion

**Chapter 16: Incursion**

 _March 6th, 2183_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

I was startled awake by the sound of the comms opening in my room. "Commander, a transmission from Alliance Command just came. Patching it through." There was a pause as Joker patched in the transmission. "Commander, it's Admiral Hackett. We're getting reports of Geth activity in the Armstrong Nebula, and it's got us worried. They're centered around four known Geth outposts in the region. Shepard, these could be potential staging grounds for an invasion. We need you to take care of them before this problem escalates. Hackett out." The comms cut off. I got out of bed, got dressed, and left my quarters to inform Tali and Garrus to get ready.

 _A few hours later_

 _Maji, Vamshi system_

Another rough landing with the Mako. Man, we haven't been on this planet for more than a few seconds, and it's already getting pretty hot in here. Tali marked out the position on the map of the area of the location of the geth outpost. I took a moment to examine the geography of that area. Extremely mountainous, great. I took a look out the windshield, and saw the mountain in the distance. I turned on the rangefinder in my helmet. About a kilometer away, great. I began driving towards the mountain, with Garrus scanning the area along the way.

As we approached the mountain, a rocket landed right near the Mako, rocking us a bit. I heard Garrus aim the turret upward. "Commander, we've got geth turrets on the mountain." I nodded, and began driving up the mountain, avoiding rockets coming at us from left and right as Garrus returned fire. By the time we reached the top of the mountain, all the geth turrets had been destroyed. Just then, our radar began being scrambled. I kept driving in the general direction of the waypoint.

There it was. A geth outpost, with walls and guard towers. There were a few fuel tanks and supplies inside. Garrus marked out rocket troopers and snipers in the towers on our huds, and began firing on them. I kept driving around, dodging more rockets and sniper fire. When there were less Geth troops, I drove right into the compound, and rammed into a Geth colossus. It fell over with a thud, and tried to get back up. However, I just kept ramming it, and Garrus kept firing on it. Eventually, the colossus' systems overloaded from the damage, and exploded. I stopped the Mako in the center of the compound, and called for the Normandy to pick us up. Garrus scanned the area again with the turret, and then leaned down to me. "Alright. That's one down, three to go."

 _Casbin, Hong system_

We dropped in rather close to the outpost than we normally would've been. I turned around to brief Tali and Garrus quickly. "Alright, we should expect the same as the base on Maji. Colossi, rocket troopers, snipers, and heavy defenses. Nothing unusual." I began driving towards the outpost at full speed.

After another drive over mountains and hills, we finally came into contact with geth turrets. However, they were on another mountain across a small field. So, I parked the Mako on the mountain, and let him fire at the turrets at a distance. After a while, Garrus had destroyed all the turrets in range, and I continued driving towards the outpost.

It wasn't that far away. And when we got there, it was the same as the other outpost. A colossus, snipers, and rocket troopers. Using the same tactics as before, I drove around dodging rockets and plasma cannon fire from the colossus while Garrus destroyed everything in the compound. I rammed into the Colossus, and it was crushed under the weight of the Mako. I drove away quickly before it could explode. When it seemed like all the Geth units were down, I was ready to call evac. But then I heard a roaring in the sky coming towards us. Garrus aimed the turret in that direction. "It's a dropship!" I continued driving around as the dropship came down from the sky and dropped off squad after squad of shock troopers into the compound. Every time a squad was dropped, Garrus would destroy it, and keep firing at the dropship. Eventually, the dropship started flaming, and tried to escape. However, its thrusters failed, and it crashed not too far from the outpost. I called for evac once we knew that all the Geth had been destroyed.

 _Antibaar, Tereshkova system_

We landed in the middle of a snowstorm, so we could barely see anything. Besides, something was scrambling our radar anyway, so it'd be difficult to find this outpost. I checked the map, and noticed an anomaly not far from the outpost. I set a waypoint for that, and began driving towards it.

What we found was rather brutal. A small research vehicle had been ambushed by Geth, and had been utterly destroyed. The mutilated bodies were left outside of the burnt out vehicle. We climbed out of the Mako, and began inspecting the bodies. Garrus and I searched for IDs. He found an ID for a scientist burned onto one of the corpses. "Damn. Horrible way to go out." Garrus handed the ID to me, and we kept looking around. Tali then called us over. "Commander, you should have a look at this." I came over, and knelt down beside her. She dug away more snow, and uncovered the "head" of a Geth unit. "There haven't been any Alliance soldiers on this planet in a long time. Something else killed this Geth, and maybe we should look out for it." I felt the ground rumble. Thresher maws, shit. "Guys, get back into the Mako! We're getting out of here!" We all ran back into the Mako, and kept driving towards the anomaly. I could hear the maws popping up behind us, trying to search for us. I'm not letting them take me today, no way.

The "anomaly" turned out to be an old Prothean ruin. We parked right outside of it, and Tali and I dismounted. We began searching around for some sort of artifact that the scientists might have been looking for before they were ambushed by Geth. While I was still searching around in the snow, Tali found something in the center of the platform. "Commander, I've found a data disk. Should I take it?" I nodded. "Yeah. Let's keep moving. Those Geth aren't going to just take care of themselves." We climbed back into the Mako, and began driving across the snowy plains to the outpost.

Well, there it was. Sitting in the middle of the open, same defenses and everything. I stopped the Mako just before we got into firing range. "Garrus, expect another dropship. Just be on guard." I saw him nod as he aimed down the sights of the turret. I drove forward, and began circling the outpost as he fired into it. The Geth stood no chance. Within a matter of minutes the outpost was decimated. I parked in the center, and waited for a dropship to show up. After a while, I heard the roar of one in the distance. Garrus aimed in its direction, and began firing. It was already on fire when it dropped a squad of shock troopers and a prime on the outpost. It went down into the snow nearby. Meanwhile, Garrus destroyed the reinforcements with the same efficiency that he had destroyed the outpost. I signalled Joker for evac. Garrus checked one last time for Geth. "Alright, just one more outpost left, Shepard."

 _Rayingri, Gagarin system_

By luck, we dropped right next to the "outpost". Except that it wasn't an outpost. It was a research base. There were those spikes again. Oh God. What if the Geth have already turned the researchers into husks? We dismounted, drew our guns, and entered the research base.

It was oddly silent as we proceeded through the first room. No radar contacts... yet. We came into the main research room, and found the place covered in crates. Then, all sorts of contacts popped up on my hud. All of them were husks. "Guys, get ready!" We readied ourselves as we heard the screams of the husks come closer to us. When they rounded the corner of some of the boxes, we immediately began firing. It seemed to be getting easier to kill these things. One of them tackled me to the ground, but Tali had my back, and shot it off. "I owe you one." I noticed that occasionally, she'd be looking at me. "You ok?" She became focused on the husks again. "Oh. I'm sorry. I was just calibrating my hud." Ok...? Well, the last husk fell, and there were no more contacts on radar. We proceeded to the back of the room, and entered a small hallway. The door to the other side opened, and more husks poured through. We kept firing until all of them were dead.

Contacts began coming in from behind, and they weren't husks. They were Geth. We turned around, and began firing on the Geth units trying to flank us. Holy shit, I haven't fought this hard in so long. Tali sank a shotgun blast into the final Geth unit, and it whirred to a halt. We ran towards the exit. When we got outside, we found tons of Geth surrounding the base. I pointed to the Mako. "Get in, I'll cover you!" I tried to drop a few Geth while Tali and Garrus climbed into the Mako. Then, I charged across the open, and dived into the opening, all the while being shot at. I shut the hatch, and sat down in the driver's seat. Garrus was already firing on the Geth. Eventually, all of the Geth reinforcements had been eliminated. We all relaxed a little when we knew that there weren't any reinforcements coming. Garrus climbed out of the turret seat, and sat in the back. "Strange. I expected one of these outposts to be the main base of operations for this incursion." Tali was already on her omnitool, scanning for transmissions. "Hold on. One of their receivers is picking up some kind of transmission. Based on the signal strength..." I tapped into the transmission myself, and finished her sentence. "...I'd say it's coming from inside this star cluster." Garrus kept going. "It must be a message from the primary Geth base. We can use the signal to lock onto its location, and take them out!"

 _Solcrum, Grissom system_

I swear, it's long drives and slow elevators that make me want to die. And guess what? Another long drive. Seriously, why can't we be dropped closer? Anyway, I shouldn't be complaining. I have a mission to do. After driving over the top of a mountain, the Geth base was visible below. I parked the Mako in a position where Garrus could get clean shots with the cannon, and he immediately began firing. The Geth in the towers were dead in a matter of seconds, and there was only the Geth colossus left. A round from its plasma cannon landed right next to us, so I began charging towards the base. I rammed the Mako into the colossus, and it tipped over and collpased. Garrus kept emptying round after round into it until it overloaded its systems and exploded. I parked the Mako outside the entrance. We dismounted, drew our guns, and entered the base.

Hm. Something different, for a change. We stacked up on the door. I opened the door, and a rocket flew through from the other side, exploding on the wall behind us. I peeked around the corner to get a sense of what was there. Something flew across the room and onto the wall. I looked over, and it was... a Geth? It looked me in the eye, and flew to another position at lightning speed. What? We opened fire on the Geth, and I tried hitting that jumping bastard. Its flashlight head lit up, and fired some sort of beam at me. It hit me in the arm, knocked me over, and fried my shields. Shit. I got back into cover. "Commander, are you alright?!" I nodded. "Yeah. It's nothing." I peeked out again, and managed to get a shot on the thing. I saw half of its flashlight head come off, and it collapsed to the ground.

We killed a few more Geth, and took cover behind some crates further in the room. On the balcony above, there was a Geth prime trying to rain down hell on us. Using a few tricks, I managed to overload its shields, and fry its weapons. We concentrated our fire on it until its systems overloaded and it exploded. There were still a couple of destroyers scattered throughout the room, so we began turning our fire towards them. However, I heard one of them charging towards us, so I began running back to another set of cover. The thing barrelled into a massive crate, knocking it and Garrus over. I drew my combat knife, jumped onto it, and sunk the knife deep into its head. The platform slowly died, and collapsed onto the ground. I pulled my knife out, and stuck it back in my boot. We had one more look around the room, and found that there were no more Geth.

I pointed towards the entrance. "Garrus, make sure that nothing comes through that door." Garrus nodded, and stood guard at the door. Tali and I moved to the other side of the room to look for anything on the Geth. That was when a monitor on the wall turned on. It was playing... music? On the monitor, a quarian stood before a hushed crowd, singing... something. Tali stood next to me. "She's singing of worlds and innocence lost." She scanned the monitor. "It's being dispatched to all the Geth worlds behind the Veil. This is fascinating." The song drew to a close, and the transmitter shut down. I removed my helmet and turned to Tali. "Are you ok?" She looked up at me. "Of course. That just made me a little... homesick, that's all." I noticed a door open behind her. Nothing came out. I went into the room to find a Geth console, and nothing else. After some time, I successfully managed to hack through its firewalls. Lots of encrypted files, wow. I wonder what they have on them. Specs of Geth troops? A way to shut down Geth soldiers temporarily? The evolution of the Geth since they banished the quarians? I don't know. I downloaded the files onto my omnitool, grabbed Tali and Garrus, and left.

 _March 9th, 2183_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

It had taken a few hours, but I'd cracked all those Geth files and sent them all to Alliance Command. I leaned back in my chair, and finished off my beer. I set the empty bottle on my desk, and shut off my computer. It's nice to finish something and have time to relax. But, then again, what do I do with these? I sighed, and looked over the pistol now mounted on the wall. Ah, a masterpiece of a gun. If only I had ammo for it, because then I might actually use it every now and then.

I heard the door to my quarters open. I turned my head to see who it was. It was... Tali? "Shepard, I need to talk to you. It's important." I got up from my chair, and came over to her. "Is there something wrong?" She seemed a bit nervous. "You know the data you took from those Geth control nodes? The information you uploaded to Alliance Command? Well, I... kind of... want a copy of it." Oh. Ok, I guess. "You want to bring this data back to the Migrant Fleet, don't you?" She began pacing. "Those files have information that could be vital to our efforts to understand the Geth. It could be the key to helping us reclaim our homeworld!" I thought for a moment. "If I give you this data, your Pilgrimage is over. You'll go back to your own people, and... would I lose you for this mission?" "Not right away. I'll stay with you as long as it takes to stop Saren, but my people need this!" Good, good. I was worried for a moment. "So, you think you can use this info to destroy your enemy." She looked at me in the eyes again. "Again, not right away. We will need to study it. It could take years, but it will give us new insights into how the Geth have changed and evolved over the past centuries." I walked over to my computer, loaded the files onto an OSD, and gave them to Tali. "Here's a copy. Go nuts." She took the OSD, and just stared at it, and then me. She left it on the couch, and hugged me out of nowhere. "Shepard, thank you. My people - I - owe you a great debt. One that I can never repay. The only thing I can offer in return is what you already have: my solemn promise to stay with you until Saren and his Geth armies are destroyed." She paused, and just held onto me. This is a little weird, if you ask me. "I never wanted anything more." "Thank you, Shepard. You're the best." Wait. She's been holding on for some time now. "Tali?" She let go suddenly and became visibly nervous. "Oh, uh... I'm just happy you did this for me." She quickly left, leaving me alone again.


	17. Chapter 17: Liara

**Chapter 17: Liara**

 _March 10th, 2183_

 _En route to Therum_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

The moment I stepped outside of my quarters, I saw Wrex looking for more alcohol in the mess. "Hey Wrex, looking for something?" He grunted as he rummaged through the fridge. "Yeah. Something to knock me on my ass." I opened the other fridge containing everything alcoholic, and grabbed some Ryncol. "Will this do?" He looked up at me, grabbed the bottle, and inspected the label. He grunted. "Good enough." He sat down, popped open the top of the bottle, and downed about a quarter of it in a single gulp. I grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge and sat down across from him.

I opened the bottle and took a drink. "So, Wrex. Why did you become a mercenary in the first place?" He downed even more Ryncol. "Lots of reasons." I raised my eyebrow. "Like...?" He set the bottle of Ryncol down on the table. "Like... I needed to get away from Tuchanka. I needed to eat and survive." I drank more from my bottle. "Why didn't you stay and help your people?" He shook his head, and finished off the bottle of Ryncol. "I tried to help. Believe me, I did. But that's why I had to leave." What? Why? "What happened?" I took another drink as I watched him prepare to give a long story. "I was betrayed. I was the head of a small tribe back on Tuchanka. We were trying to restore order after the war, probably the most sensible thing to do. But the other tribes were against us. They followed Jarrod, one of the few warlords who survived our war with the turians. But, he was aging, and so were his ideas." He stopped to check if there was more Ryncol in the bottle, but there wasn't so he set it back down again.

"He wanted to continue the war. He wanted us to just fight anyone, be it turians, salarians, or each other. It didn't matter who as long as we kept fighting." I leaned in to listen better. "What did you want?" Wrex chuckled. "I just wanted Jarrod to shut up and stop his ranting. I wanted him to stop leading all the other tribes astray. But, being his age, he couldn't understand how much everything had changed. We didn't have the numbers to go to war. Even if we did fight, the genophage ensured that we would never be able to replenish our numbers fast enough." He got up, searched for another drink, and sat back down with another bottle of Ryncol. "I told them all to forget fighting and starting wars. We needed to focus on surviving and breeding, even for just one generation. And, for a while, I was getting through. Some of the other tribes began coming around, and abandoning Jarrod's ways." Wow. I had no idea Wrex was in any way interested in peaceful ways. This is probably the first time any krogan I've encountered has ever pursued peace. "I take it the warlord didn't appreciate what you did." He shook his head. "No, no he didn't. He arranged a 'Crush' with all the tribes, a meeting on neutral ground. He actually wanted to talk, for once. We met at the Hollows, near the graves of our ancestors. The skulls of our dead had been laid around to remind us where we come from, and where we all go."

He drank from his bottle. "It's as sacred as any krogan place can be. Violence is forbidden." Wait, violence forbidden somewhere on Tuchanka? I thought that was virtually impossible? However, something tells me this didn't go well. "It sounds like a trap, at least to me. You must've at least suspected that." He gave me a glance. "As a matter of fact, I did. But when your father invites you to a Crush, well... there are _some_ laws that even we hold sacred." Wait, Jarrod was his father? What? This is sounding all too weird. "Jarrod was your father?" "He was," Wrex took another drink. "until that day. We talked, but we didn't get anywhere at all. I tried to make it clear to him that his ways were outdated, and that I would never join him. Well, that really became clear to him, because he gave the signal to attack." He took another drink, emptying the bottle. "His men leapt from the graves of our ancestors like krogan undead. The few that were loyal to me were killed off faster than I could handle." He pointed the massive scratch across his right eye. Hey, we have scars across the same eye. Never really noticed that. "Jarrod gave me this scar. But for that, I sank my dagger deep into his chest. I managed to escape with my life by some miracle." He set the bottle next to the other bottle on the counter behind him, and leaned back again. "So, that's why I left. And that's why I'll never go back, too."

He pointed to my scar. "Where'd you get the scar from, Shepard?" I looked away for a moment. Great, time to tell yet another person about Akuze. Telling all those reporters years ago was bad enough, but telling a krogan mercenary might be harder. They actually criticize you for having PTSD. "Well, you probably heard about Akuze, right?" He nodded. "Yeah. Going up against a nest of thresher maws is something not even krogan can do, Shepard. You're damn brave." Ok, thanks, I guess? "I'll tell you what actually happened later. Well... I carved this scar myself. As a reminder of what happened, and that one day I'll join my friends in hell." I got up. "Well, I've got some stuff to do. We'll talk later." I heard Wrex grab another bottle of Ryncol as I went up to CIC.

 _A few hours later_

Down in the cargo bay, Tali, Garrus and I were getting ready to land on Therum when I saw that they were ready, I linked up my comms with both of them. "Alright, Dr. T'Soni is supposed to be at an archaeological dig not far from the drop zone. Expect the usual Geth forces both on the way and in the dig site." We climbed into the Mako, and I sat in the driver's seat. Never gets old watching the thing start up, I swear.

Through the windshield, I watched as the cargo bay door opened up. Joker came over the comms. "Alright, Commander. You're free to go." I pushed on the gas, and drove the Mako out of the Normandy. Alright, let's try and make it smooth this time. Thrusters at 100% capacity, now lower slowly, slowly... there. We touched on the ground rather smoothly. Heat warnings flashed across the dashboard, prompting the Mako to automatically activate internal cooling systems. Nice. I took a moment to look around. Alright, seems like there's a single path to the dig site. And... lava. Great. This thing handles like a bitch, I know, but please don't get us killed, Lucas. I pressed on the gas, and began driving.

Joker came over the comms again. "Commander, I'm picking up quite some rather strange readings. Like, really strange. As in off the damn charts strange." I heard him pressing a few buttons. "Alright. Looks like it's coming from some underground complex a few klicks away from your position. Most likely the dig site. Good luck." He cut off the comms, and I kept driving along the winding path.

As we approached another turn around more lava, there was a roaring coming from above and behind us. Garrus swiveled the turret to see what it was. "Shit, Geth dropship!" I saw it fly at an extremely low altitude overhead, and drop off a couple of armatures ahead of us. It went off over the mountains, and the roaring slowly got further and further away until it was gone. We were already taking fire from the armatures furhter along the path, so Garrus decided to return fire. Within minutes, they were down, and we kept driving on.

Eventually, we came to some sort of base obstructing the path to the dig site. Holy shit, there were a ton of heavy turrets right out front, and they were firing on us already. Tali was checking the map for some sort of way around. "Knocking down the front door is a stupid idea. There's some kind of side entrance to the right, go!" Well, that helps. I stomped on the gas, and took a sharp right to avoid multiple rockets. There was only one turret on this side entrance, which Garrus destroyed immediately. There were no walls blocking us from going in, so I drove the Mako right in.

There were Geth units everywhere. As I was ramming them, I could hear the sounds of rounds hitting our shields. Our shields were actually going down pretty fast. Garrus eventually finished off the last Geth unit in the open, and I parked the Mako outside of the gate leading to the dig site, and dismounted. "Hold on, I'll find something to open this up." I drew my pistol, and ran into the guardhouse. There was a single shock unit that spotted me when I entered. Before it could get a shot off on me, I drew my combat knife and mutilated all the wires in its flashlight head. It whirred to a stop below me. I got up, pressed the button to open the gate, and ran back out to the Mako. We kept driving towards the dig site.

Again, the path kept winding around small rivers of lava and such, and making those turns is a little hard in something like the Mako. There were a few armatures along the way, but there wasn't really anything that could stop us. But then we rounded the side of a hill, and there was a full squad of Geth and a colossus waiting for us at the entrance to some kind of covered bridge. The squad was easy to take care of, but it was the colossus that was kind of hard. With Garrus firing at it, we knocked it over and pushed it into the lava. Watching it burn up is something that just made me feel good. We drove up the ramp, and drove across the bridge.

When we came out on the other side, more Geth troops were waiting for us. But there was nothing seriously dangerous, so they were destroyed in a few seconds. It took a while for us to drive the path around this rather large lava lake, and there was another covered bridge for us to drive over, but we eventually came to the end of the path. We dismounted the Mako, drew our guns, and began walking along the footpath through the rocky hills.

There were a few Geth here and there, but they were killed quickly and easily. We came to the edge of a rather large pit. The path continued through it, but there were Geth units all around, and there was a tower with a sniper in it. Garrus was already sniping out the Geth as Tali and I proceeded down the path and into the pit. We dived behind some boulders as the Geth began firing on us instead of Garrus, allowing him to have more time to hit them. After some time, we had destroyed all the Geth units in the pit, but the ones in the tower still weren't dead. Wait, I have a shitty but perfect idea. I opened comms with Garrus. "Keep them down, we're going to blow the tower!" Garrus took some time to respond. "Alright, Commander. Good luck." I motioned to Tali to follow me. We proceeded from cover to cover until we reached the base of the tower. Tali and I placed charges at structurally weak places on the tower, and made our way to a safe distance. I called out on the comms, "Cover!" Using my omnitool, I set off the explosives, sending the tower down to the ground in a grand show of pyrotechnics and crushing the Geth inside. Garrus climbed down to meet us, and we continued up the path towards the compound, which wasn't that far away now.

When we reached the compound, it seemed empty. I gave the signal to stop, and we got into cover. I heard something moving on the silos to our right, so I aimed in that direction. And... there one was! One of those creepy jumping fuckers! I marked it out on our huds, and we all began firing on it. Now was the time for the other Geth to pop out from behind the silos and crates. They all began firing on us, and just when it seemed like it had only gotten worse, an armature came out from behind the silos. We kept firing back at them, only to be answered with even more fire. It took us a long time to just get the stalkers down, and even longer to take out the regulars. All that remained now was the armature. There was no way we could bust through this thing with small arms fire. Wait, there might be a way... I scanned the armature's shields. I realized that Tali and I could overload the shields, and then the thing should be easy taking. I opened comms with Tali. "Tali, I need you to help me overload this thing's shields. On three! One... two..." She readied her hack on her omnitool as the armature kept firing on us. "Three!" Both Tali and I sent the hack into the armature's systems, and we could see its shields shutting off. We all concentrated fire on its vital systems, and eventually the armature shut down and burst into flames.

The entrance to the underground complex was right in front of us, so we proceeded up the ramp, and then down the path into the cavern. The place was eerily silent. We continued following the walkway until we came to an elevator. This cavern is pretty interesting. Doesn't look like anything I've ever been in. What was also strange was that the Prothean ruin was activated in some way. Tali was inspecting the cavern, too. "It looks like this cavern formed around the ruin _after_ it was built. Interesting." We entered the elevator and waited for the thing to lurch down.

Good God, how many times have I told myself that I've hated elevators? No, seriously. These things are going to give me brain damage some day for being so unbelieveably slow. After what felt like hours, we arrived another floor down. We walked across another walkway, and entered yet another elevator. Jesus, I hate these things. I pressed the down button, and the elevator started going down at, like, 1/16 mph. Garrus decided to break the silence. "I wonder what Dr. T'Soni's looking for in here. Most of these Prothean ruins don't have anything more than dead instrumentation." The elevator stuttered for a moment. "Maybe she's looking for dead instrumentation. Who knows?" The elevator began sparking all of a sudden, and stopped abruptly. I looked over the railing, and saw that the walkway had been absolutely demolished. Shit. We vaulted over the railing and climbed down the ruins of the walkway. That was when we heard a voice coming from inside one of those barrier things.

"Uh... hello? Could somebody help me out of here? Please?" We approached the barrier. That has to be Liara, no doubt. I could see her inspecting us visually. "Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped in here, and I need help getting out!" I touched the barrier, and it felt like solid metal, even though it certainly wasn't. "Are you ok? What happened?" She looked around. "This thing I am in is a Prothean barrier curtain, a security device. I cannot move, so I need you to get me out of it, alright?" I touched the barrier again. "Yeah, we just need to find some way past..." Liara began panicking even more. "I knew this barrier curtain would keep me safe from the Geth, but I must have hit something I wasn't supposed to, and I was trapped in here. You must hurry, please!" I held my hands up to stop her. "It's ok, it's ok. We'll help you. Just calm down." Sure nodded to the console to her right. "That console should deactivate the barrier, but you'll have to find some way in. That's the tricky part. The defenses cannot be shut off from the outside, so I don't have any clue how you'll get in here." Just as we turned to leave, she stopped us. "Be careful. There is a krogan with the Geth. They have been trying many different ways to get past the barrier to capture me."

We continued down the walkway. Hm, there's a mining laser right here. Maybe we could use it to dig our way through to the other side. A shot rang out from across the cavern, so we drew our weapons and dove to cover. There were more Geth contacts ahead, shit. After a few minutes, the squad of Geth had been destroyed and we had time to inspect the laser. There was a contral panel on the laser. "You two guard me while I get this thing going." Let's see here. It seems that the laser had been knocked off target, so I'm going to need to position this thing just right. Let's see, where's the most structurally vulnerable spot ahead... alright. Slightly right, slightly less left, even less right, a smidge left, and finally a little bit up. I pressed the button to activate the laser. The ground shook as the laser tore a massive hole through the floor of the cavern and exposed the ruin. We proceeded down into the ruin and found what seemed to be a Prothean elevator. I pressed a button, and the elevator went up.

Convenient. The elevator led us right behind Liara. When we approached her, she turned her head to see us. "What...? How did you get in here? I didn't think there would be any way past...?" I began fiddling with the console, trying to free her from the barrier. "Doesn't matter. We have to get you out of here before more Geth reinforcements arrive." She sighed. "Yes, you're right. I've seen enough of them to last a lifetime. One of those buttons should shut down my containment field." I finally found the right button, releasing Liara from the containment field. She collapsed to the ground, and stood up again. Tali was inspecting the elevator. "Any idea how we get out of this place?" Liara nodded. "That elevator should take us out of here, come on!" We ran onto the elevator, and began going up.

On the way up, Liara began questioning me. "I still cannot believe all this? Why would the Geth ever come after me? Do you think my mother, Benezia, is involved?" Tali answered for me. "Saren's looking for 'the Conduit', and you're a Prothean expert. He probably wants you to help him find it." She raised her eyebrow. "The Conduit? But I don't know-" The ruin rumbled for a moment. We all looked up and around. Garrus was visibly scared. "What the hell was that?!" Liara began working on the elevator to try and make it go faster. "These ruins aren't stable. That mining laser you used must've triggered a seismic event." No fucking shit. It was a terrible idea using that laser, but it was the only way to get to her. "We have to hurry, the whole place is caving in!" I opened comms with Joker. After all, we need extraction ready for when we get out. "Joker! Get the Normandy down here and lock in on our signal! On the double!" I could hear Joker punching in something on the Normandy's controls. "Aye-aye, Commander. We'll be there ETA eight minutes." The elevator began moving faster. Tali was pacing nervously. "He needs to move faster!" Garrus was doing the same thing. "Damn right, he needs to!"

The elevator came to a stop at a platform at the top of the ruin. However, that krogan that Liara mentioned along with a squad of Geth came in from the entrance. One of the Geth sealed the barrier behind them, ensuring that we couldn't run away. Garrus was about to fire at them, but I signalled him to lower his gun for now. The krogan stopped the squad of Geth. "Surrender, or don't. That'd be way more fun." I gestured around the room with my hands. "In case you didn't notice, this place is falling apart." The krogan smiled evilly. "Exhilarating, isn't it?" He stepped forward further. "Thanks for getting rid of those damned energy fields for us. Now, hand the doctor over, and we'll be on our way." Liara stepped back behind us. "Whatever it is you want, you're not getting it from me." I shook my head. "She'll be staying with us, thanks." The krogan's smile faded. "Not an option. Saren wants her, and he always gets what he wants, no matter what." He turned to the Geth. "Kill them, and spare the asari if you can. If not, it really doesn't matter. She's just collateral damage."

We all drew our weapons, and dove for cover behind some massive pump things. Liara was safely behind cover near us. That krogan is more dangerous than those Geth ever will be. I opened the squad-wide channel. "Concentrate fire on the krogan!" We all began firing on the krogan, all the while avoiding fire from the Geth. He fell face-first on the ground, and when he tried to get up, a round from Garrus' rifle went through his leg. He was enraged, alright. Screaming in agony and anger, he kept trying to shoot at us. Garrus sent another round through him, this time through the head, shutting him up and ending his life.

Now we could focus on the Geth at the other side of the room. We went from cover to cover, slowly getting closer until we were pretty much point blank with the Geth. In a matter of minutes, the Geth had been destroyed. It's way too easy to destroy Geth, to be honest. I don't know why they just don't do any software upgrade to counter us. But then again, I'm not complaining, am I? Liara ran over to us, and we were stopped by the barrier. There wasa rumbling, and the barrier lost power. We could see the cavern collapsing around us, so we made a break for the exit. Behind us, parts of the walkway were collapsing, so we had to run even faster. "Move, move, move!"

The others, including Liara, were already out the top, and I followed shortly behind. The dig site exploded behind me, sending me flying into the air, and tumbling down the ramp out of the dig site. Damn, that hurt. Tali came over to me, and helped me up. "Thanks." The Normandy was already there waiting for us, cargo door open. I looked back at the dig site. Shit, the Council isn't going to like this at all...

 _Later_

 _Briefing Room, SSV Normandy SR1_

"...that was too close, Commander. Ten more seconds and we would've been swimming in molten sulfur." Joker sighed. "Look, the Normandy isn't equipped to land in exploding volcanoes, ok?" His voice became very sarcastic. "They tend to fry our sensors and melt our hull. You know, just for future reference." Liara seemed rather annoyed. "We almost died out there, and your pilot is making jokes?" I glanced at her. "Look, Joker pulled our asses out of there. I think's he's earned the right to a few bad jokes." She thought for a moment. "I see. It must be a human thing, I guess. I'm sorry. I don't have a lot of experience dealign with your species, Commander. But I am grateful to you. You saved my life back there, and not just from that volcano. Those Geth would've killed me or dragged me off to Saren. Thank you, again."

Kaidan interrupted. "What did Saren want with you? Do you know something about this 'Conduit'?" Liara looked at him. "Only that it was somehow connected to the Prothean extinction. Of course, that's my area of expertise. I've spen the past fifty years trying to figure out the fate of the Prothean race." Fifty years? What? "Wait, hold on. How old are you, exactly?" A look of embarassment came over her. "I hate to admit it, but I am only... a hundred and six years old." Ashley was surprised. "Damn! I hope I look that good when I'm your age." Liara turned to her. "A century may seem like a long time to a short-lived species like yours, but among the asari people, I am barely considered more than a child." She sighed. "That is why my research hasn't received a lot of the attention it deserves. Because of my youth, other asari scientists and scholars have a tendency to dismiss my theories on the Prothean extinction." What? But then again, this isn't why we're here. I'll ask later.

"I've got my own theory about why the Protheans disappeared, actually." Liara stopped me. "With all due respect, Commander, I have heard every possible theory out there. The problem is finding the evidence to support any of them. The Protheans left remarkably little behind of their existence." She fell into a state of thoughtfulness again. She crossed her arms. "It's almost as if someone didn't want the mystery solved. It's like someone came along after the Protheans were gone and cleansed the galaxy of any and all clues of their exitinction. But here is the incredible part. According to my findings, the Protheans weren't the first galactic civilization to just mysteriously die out. This cycle began a long time before them." Wait. She had just said that there wasn't any evidence for any theories. "Where'd you come up with this theory? I thought you just said there wasn't any evidence to back any up." She turned her attention back to me. "I've been working on this for fifty ears. I've tracked down any and every scrap and shred of evidence left. Eventually, subtle patterns begin to emerge, patterns that hint at the truth. It's difficult to explain to someone else. I cannot point to one specific thing to prove my case. It's more a feeling, derived from a half a century of dedicated research to the topic."

She began looking at everyone. "But I know I'm right, and eventually I will be able to prove it. There were other civilizations before the Protheans. This cycle has, and will repeat itself many times over." Hm. Interesting. "If the Protheans weren't the first, then who was?" She shrugged slightly. "I don't know. There is barely any evidence on the Protheans, and even less on those who came before them. I cannot prove my theory, but I know that I am correct! The galaxy is built on some kind of cycle of extinction. Every time a great civilization rises up, it is suddenly and very violently cast down. Only ruins remain. The Protheans rose from a single world to an empire spanning the entire galaxy. Yet even they climbed to the top on the remains of the peoples that came before. Their greatest achievements - the mass relays and the Citadel being prime examples - are based on the technology of those who came before them. And then, like every other forgotten civilization in galactic history, the Protheans vanished. I have dedeicated my life to finding out why." She finally finished, thank God.

"They, and all previous civilizations, were wiped out by a race of sentient machines, the Reapers." She looked confused. "The - the reapers? But I have never heard of - How do you know this? What evidence do you have?" I remembered the beacon. "There was a damaged Prothean beacon on Eden Prime. I accidentally used it, and it burned a vision into my head. I'm still trying to sort out exactly what it means." Liara thought for a moment. "Visions? Yes... that makes perfect sense. The beacons were designed to transmit information directly into the mind of the user. Finding one that works at all is an extremely rare occurence. No wonder the Geth attacked Eden Prime. Any chance to acquire a working Prothean beacon, even a badly damaged one, is worth almost any risk. But the beacons were only programmed to interact with Prothean physiology. Whatever information you received would've been unclear, muddled, confused, so on. I am amazed you were able to make sense of it at all. A lesser mind would've been utterly destroyed by the process. You must be remarkably strong-willed, Commander." Well, that's a compliment I don't hear every day.

Ashley stopped her from talking more. "This isn't helping us find Saren or the Conduit at all." Liara began talking again. "Of course, you're right. I am sorry. My scientific curiosity got the better of me. Unfortunately, I don't have any information that could help you find the Conduit or Saren. Again, I'm sorry." So it's been worthless finding her? Great. Might as well keep her along, now. "I don't know why Saren wanted you out of the big picutre, but I think we'll be a lot better off if we bring you along for this." She stood up. "Thank you, Commander. Saren might come after me again, and I cannot think of anywhere safer than here on your ship. And who knows, my knowledge of the Protheans may become useful later on." She's right. If we encounter anything more Prothean-related, she'll be extremely useful. "Good to have you on the team then, Liara." She bowed slightly. "Thank you, Commander. I am very gratef-" She began to stumble a little. "Whoa. I am afraid I'm feeling a tad light-headed." Kaidan stood up too. "When was the last time you ate or slept? Dr. Chakwas should take a good look at you, to be honest." Liara looked at me again. "It is probably just mental exhaustion, of course coupled with the shock of discovering the true fate of the Protheans. I will need some time to process all of this. Still, it couldn't hurt to be examined by a medical professional. It will give me the chance to think all these things over. Are we finished here, Commander?" I nodded. "We can talk again after you've seen the doctor. The rest of you, dismissed!"

Everyone left the briefing room, leaving me alone to think. Joker came over the comms, though. "Mission reports are all filed, Commander. You want me to patch you through to the Council?" I activated the holographic projectors. "Patch them through, Joker." "Aye-aye, sir. Setting up the link now." Joker shut off the comms, and the councilors appeared on the projectors. The asari councilor was the first to speak. "We've received your reports, Commander. I believe that Dr. T'Soni is on the Normandy?" The turian councilor interrupted before I could respond. "And I assume you're taking the necessary security precautions as well, correct?" I nodded. "Liara's on our side. Besides, the Geth were trying to kill her. If she was with the enemy, they wouldn't be attacking her." The asari councilor nodded. "True. Benezia would never allow Saren to kill her daughter." "Maybe she doesn't know?" The turian councilor looked at me. "Or maybe we don't know her. We never expected she would become a traitor to the galactic community." The salarian councilor nodded. "At least the mission was a success." The turian councilor became angrier. "Apart from the utter destruction of a major Prothean ruin. Was that _really_ necessary, Shepard?" I crossed my arms. "The Geth were crawling all over the dig site. All of us were lucky to make it out alive." The salarian councilor agreed. "Of course, Commander. The mission must always take priority." The asari councilor turned to me. "Good luck, Commander. Remember that everyone's counting on you." The comms shut off, and now I was really alone this time.


	18. Chapter 18: Justice

**Chapter 18: Justice**

 _0100 hours_

 _March 11th, 2183_

 _SSV Normandy SR1_

I woke up screaming. I had seen Akuze again. All the men screaming for me to help, Tombstone, Chicken, Crazy Ivan, Lucifer. They were all calling to me again. I laid back down and stared at the ceiling. There's no way I'm going to be able to sleep again tonight. I'll just keep hearing them in my sleep. I got up, got dressed, and left my quarters.

I entered the Medbay. Chakwas noticed me enter, and stopped working on her computer. "Is there something you need, Commander?" What do I need? You know what, I haven't really checked up on Liara yet. "Where's Liara?" Chakwas pointed to the back room. "She's staying in there." I nodded, and entered the room where Liara was staying.

She was working on something on her computer. She stopped working on it when I entered, and stood up. "Commander, are you coming to check up on me?" "You seem much better. How are you feeling?" She shut off her computer quickly. "Dr. Chakwas assures me that I am going to be fine. I'm very impressed with her knowledge of asari physiology." I nodded. "Yeah. You're in good hands. Dr. Chakwas sure knows what she's doing." She looked me in the eyes. "I've never properly thanked you for saving me from the Geth, Commander. If you hadn't shown up... well..." I thought for a moment. "I'm just glad we got there in time, that's all." She nodded. "So am I. I know you took a chance bringing me aboard your ship. I have seen the way your crew looks at me, and I can tell that they do not trust me. But I am not like Benezia, and I will do whatever I can to help stop Saren. I swear that on my life." "Don't worry, Liara. I trust you. I know you won't ever let me down." Hopefully she doesn't get the wrong idea when I say that. Please, don't let her get the wrong idea. "It means a lot to hear you say that, Commander. Thank you." Thank God she didn't think anything more of that.

"So, tell me about yourself, Liara." She raised her eyebrow. "Me? I am not very interesting, Commander. I spend the vast jaority of my time on remote digs, unearthing mundane items buried in long-forgotten Prothean ruins." I crossed my arms. "Sounds dangerous and rather lonely." Goddammit, Shepard. Never say that again. Ever. "Sometimes I'd run afoul of indigenous life-forms, or stumble across some small bands of mercenaries or privateers. But I was always careful. Until the Geth followed me to Artemis Tau, I never found myself in any situation my biotics couldn't handle. As for the solitude, well, that's the aspect that most appealed to me. Sometimes I just need to stay away from other people for some time." "You don't like other people?" Why did I just ask that? It really shows on her. "I suppose it comes from being a Matriarch's daughter. People always expect me to follow in Benezia's footsteps. They wanted me to become a leader of our people. Matriarchs guide their followers into the future, as they seek the truth of what is yet to come. Maybe that's why I've become so interested in the secrets of the past. It sounds foolish when I say it out loud. To be honest, it sounds like I became an archaeologist simply to spite Benezia." Ok, I guess. Makes sense. "All children rebel against their parents at some point. It's just a natural part of growing up." But then again, I never really had parents, so that doesn't really apply to me. I rebelled against Finch though, so that can apply there.

She laughed. "You share the wisdom of the Matriarch, Shepard. That's exactly what Benezia said when I told her my decision. But there was more to it than that. I felt _drawn_ to the past. The Protheans were these wondrous, mysterious figures in history. I wanted to know everything about them. That is why I find you so fascinating. You were marked by the beacon on Eden Prime, so that means you were touched by working Prothean technology!" I'm fascinating? What? Is she hitting on me? "Sounds like you want to dissect me in a lab somewhere." She began blushing and backed up. "What? No! I didn't mean to insinuate - I never meant to offend you, Shepard. I only meant that you would be an interesting specimen for in-dpeth study." She brought her palm to her face. "No, that's even worse!" What? "Calm down, Liara, it was just a joke." I could see her relax a bit. "Joking? Oh, but the Goddess, how could I be so dense? You must think that I am a complete and utter fool for this. Now you know why I prefer to spend my time in the field with computers and such. I always seem to embarass myself around others." She stopped. "Please... just pretend this never happened." I shrugged, and turned to leave. "Alright, well I've got some things to do. I'll see you later."

Before I went up to CIC, I grabbed a cup of coffee from the mess, and began drinking it as I walked up the stairs. When I got there, CIC was still rather busy, considering how late it was. I continued walking and found myself in the cockpit. Joker was still flying the ship, and not the usual autopilot that would take over and let him sleep. "Hey Joker." He turned his head to look at me. "I prefer gold to silver. You know, for my medal. I figured that you'd recommend me for one since I kind of, uh, pulled your asses out of the fire." I'll probably recommend him for a medal just to piss him off. "If we present you with a medal, you'll end up sitting on a stage listening to politicians make speeches for what seems like forever. You sure you want that?" He shrugged. "Eh. Good point. They'd probably make me shave, too. I've spent the last seven weeks working on this baby, and no medal's ever worth getting rid of this. "

So, why don't you tell me why you're really here?" I took another sip from my coffee. "You know I like to know my crew. Mind if we just talk?" Joker looked at me suspiciously. "Oh, I can see where this is going. You did a background check on me, didn't you. Well, I'm going to tell you the exact same thing I told Captain Anderson. You want me as your pilot. I'm not good, I'm not even great. I'm the best helmsman in the whole goddamn Alliance fleet! Top of my class in flight school? I earned that! All those commendations in my file? I earned every single one! Those weren't given to me as charity for my disease, you know." Did I just trigger him? Geez. "I'm sorry, Joker. I had no idea you were sick in any way." He looked away for a moment. "You mean... you mean you didn't know? Ah shit." He breathed deeply. "Ok... I've got Vrolik's Syndrome, some brittle bone disease. The bones in my legs never fully developed. They're basically hollow, so too much force and they'll shatter. Even with crutches and my leg braces it's super difficult to get around. One wrong step and CRACK! It's all very dramatic. But I've learned to manage it, Commander. Don't worry. Put the Normandy in my hands and I'll make her dance for you. But please, just don't as _me_ to get up and dance. Unless, well, you're into the sound of snapping shin bones." Ok, that's kinda weird. But then again, statistically, somewhere out there, someone has a weird fetish for breaking bones. Good thing I'm not that person.

Joker's console lit up. "Oh, you're just in time. Looks like a transmission from Admiral Hackett." He pressed a few buttons, and the transmission activated. "Commander, it's Admiral Hackett. I've just received some information I thought you'd want to see. Someone is killing Alliance scientists. There've been four deaths in the past month, and we have no clue who it is." Great, just great. "I'm happy to look into it, Admiral. What can you tell me?" There were a few button presses in the background. "Well, we found a connection between the scientists... and, well, you. They all worked on a classified project several years ago. And it was on Akuze, too." What? On Akuze? I began remembering what happened. "Sir, this can't have anything to do with what happened to me on Akuze. I've put this all behind me." There was a pause. "Commander, you saw what happened. Those thresher maws killed dozens of your comrades. If this was more than just an accident, we have to know immediately." He paused again. "Shepard, what you do with this is up to you. I just thought you'd want to know, considering what happened. There was one other scientist on the project, a certain Dr. Wayne. I'm transmitting his last known coordinates. Good luck, Hackett out." The transmission cut out, and there was another light on Joker's controls. He looked up at me. "We going there?" I nodded while staring into the distance. "Yeah. Set a course, and move as fast as you can."

 _A few hours later_

 _Ontarom, Newton system_

The Mako dropped roughly onto the top of a mountain near the target. Apparently, the research outpost nearby was headed by Dr. Wayne, and it dropped out of contact very recently. Garrus scanned the valley below us for contacts. "Commander, we've got positive contact across the valley. Mercs." He was already firing on them. I began driving down the side of the mountain, and up towards the outpost.

There was at least one squad of mercs outside, but they were decimated in no time. I parked the Mako in front of the entrance, and we dismounted. While we drew our weapons, I decided to give a warning. "Listen, whatever happens in there... just know that I'm fine, ok?" Both Tali and Garrus nodded, and we entered.

The first room of the underground facility was empty, except for a few lockers and a dead marine. Jesus, they really went hard on this place. There were wounds all over his body. Anyway, there really wasn't much to see, so we entered into the main room. We took a few steps in, and multiple merc contacts began showing up on radar. And they were coming towards us. We dove into cover as the first mercs began to engage us. The first wave of them was relatively easy, but then there were krogan and turian mercs, and that really messed our strategy up. I kept throwing grenades over my cover at them, but they just kept coming. One of the krogan mercs tried storming Tali's position, but we put him down just before he reached her. We kept firing into the waves of mercs coming towards us, and every now and then, an explosion would send some of them flying across the room. Eventually, they were all dead or dying, so we continued to the other side of the room. We opened the door, and entered a small hallway. The door to the right had two human contacts behind it. I smashed the button, and the door flew open.

There was Dr. Wayne, and he was being held at gunpoint by... someone. His face was covered by his helmet. "Stay back! I've got no trouble with you! All I want is this _bastard_!" He shoved the gun closer to Dr. Wayne, who cowered in fear. "Please! He's a madman, don't listen to him!" I signalled to Tali and Garrus to put their guns away. The merc's voice was familiar. Too familiar... "Mr. Toombs, you're insane! You need help!" Toombs?! Tombstone? No, it can't be him. I saw him die on Akuze. "Toombs" hit Dr. Wayne with his pistol. "Shut up! You don't get to lie! You don't-" He turned his head to look at me. He lowered his pistol slowly. "T-Thor?" He dropped his gun on the ground and removed his helmet. My God, it is him! I removed my helmet too. "My God, Thor, is that you?!" I dropped my pistol. "Tombstone? But... you died! That thresher maw pulled you under!" He embraced me quickly. I could feel tears in my eyes. My God, Tombstone. You're really alive. He was crying, too. "I know, Thor. I know. But _they_ took me. The scientists."

He let go of me, and gave a cold look at Dr. Wayne, who cowered even more. "You can't prove any of this! This man is delusional!" Tombstone looked back at me. "You see, these sick fucks were running tests on the thresher maws. They let those things loose on us just to watch and study." He took a deep breath. "I woke up in a holding cell with another guy and a body. The scientists were just _so_ delighted that I'd survived. Now they had a guinea pig to run tests on." I couldn't do anything. I just felt tears running out of my eyes. I heard Tali and Garrus step back. "Tombstone, I'm so goddamn sorry. I should've helped you out. I should've gone back for you." Before Tombstone could answer, scientist interrupted ."You can't believe him! He doesn't have any proof! I demand a fair trial!" He kicked the scientist in the stomach. "Don't you lie to him, you bastard! He was there, and he knows the truth!" He turned back to me. "They treated me like a lab animal. I only escaped because somebody shut down this operation, and thank God for whoever it was. All of this was done by Cerberus." He wiped some tears from his eyes. "Thor, this man deserves to die. For you, for me, for Chicken, Crazy Ivan, Lucifer, and all the good men who were murdered by Cerbers! Are you with me?" As much as I wanted to kill Dr. Wayne, I'm not a murderer. "You're better than this, Tombstone. You're not like Cerberus. Don't stoop to their level." He grabbed me by the collar and began screaming at me. "Don't tell me who I am! You got away with what, only a few scratches, that scar, and a scary reputation! Well, everyone else is dead and I was tortured for years, Thor! You can't judge me, you don't have the right to!" He let me go, and I backed up for a moment, taking a good look at him. The tombstone on his armor was still there, though very faded. This was the real Tombstone. "Tombstone, if there was any chance I could've helped you at that moment, I would've without a single doubt. But I can help now, so please. Let me."

Tombstone looked over at Dr. Wayne, who cowered in fear again. He sighed, and kicked his gun away from him. "Ok. I'm not a murderer, and these fucks couldn't make me one. Just as long as he goes to trial, ok?" He held his head with one hand. "Maybe the screaming will stop now, I don't know." Screaming? Oh man. He's the only person I know now who knows exactly how it feels. I gave him another hug, and he began crying into my shoulder. "It's ok, Tombstone. Those bastards can't hurt you any more." I opened comms with the Normandy. "Joker, we need extraction. 5 people are coming aboard, including us. Put the Doctor in confinement." There was a pause. "Aye-aye, Commander. We'll be there ETA two minutes." The channel closed. Garrus forced Dr. Wayne up, and shoved him towards the door. They both left, but Tali was still in here with Tombstone and I. I turned to her. "Tali, would you mind giving Tombstone and I a few moments?" She stared at me for a moment. "Ok. I understand, Shepard." She exited the room, and I saw her waiting outside the door when it closed.

"Tombstone, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He stopped me. "Yeah." We didn't talk to each other for a minute. "You said there was someone else in your cell. Any idea who it was?" He looked up at me for a moment before staring into space again. "Yeah, his name was Luddington. Told me to call him 'Tex', though. He kept talking about you. You know him?" Tex was with him? Oh my God. "Yep. He was a good friend. What happened to him?" Tears began to gather in Tombstone's eyes. "They forced me to watch as they tortured him, beat him, and injected all sorts of acids into his bloodstream. He kept begging them to put him out of his misery. They dragged him off one day, and he just never came back." Jesus fucking Christ. He doesn't deserve that. He was a good person. He should be alive right now, and with me. "Any idea who's body was in the cell with you?" Tombstone looked away. "I think hearing about Tex's death was bad enough for you. I'll tell you back on your ship." I nodded towards the door. "Head out?" He nodded in agreement, and he headed out. Tali came in.

"Are you ok, Commander?" I didn't answer immediately. This was all a little much for me. Tex _has_ been dead all these years. I looked at her. "Yeah. I'm fine." We stared at each other for a moment before she gave me a hug. "It's ok, Shepard. Everything's going to be fine." Fuck it. I wrapped my arms around her, too. "Hopefully."


	19. Chapter 19: Down Time

**Chapter 19: Down Time**

 _March 17th, 2183_

 _The Citadel_

Tombstone waved to me as he entered the cargo ship bound for Earth. There were tears in his eyes. Damn, I hate saying goodbye to old friends. It always seems like when they come back, they fill a hole in your heart, but when they have to go, that hole is reopened, only larger. I waved back at him, and the airlock closed. I stayed and watched as the ship undocked, and left the Citadel. Well, I have lots of business to attend to. I turned around, but just as I was about to leave the docking bay, I was stopped by an Admiral. We saluted each other.

"Rear Admiral Mikhailovich, Fifth Fleet." Oh shit, what did I do this time... "I wasn't told to expect you, sir. I would've prepared a formal greeting." He shook his head. "Spare me the pleasantries, Commander. I command the 63rd Scout Flotilla. You know, you and the Normandy were slated for my unit after your shakedown run. Then the Council got their paws, claws, tentacles, whatever they have on our ship and you." What? "I still serve the Alliance, sir. As a Spectre, I advance humanity's interests to the Council." He crossed his arms. "Hmph. Hopefully you still know what your color your blood is, Shepard. I don't begrudge the politicians' decision to throw you to the Council. It's rather... an opportunity. However, I do begrudge your overdesigned piece of tin." I raised my eyebrow. "Sir, the Normandy is a fine ship. She's served us well so far." He gestured for me to follow him, and we walked into the elevator. "She's a gimmick, Commander. She's completely useless in a stand-up fight." The elevator stopped, and we stepped out into the docking bay of the Normandy. "This 'experiment' diverted billions from our appropriations bills. You know, for the same price, we could've had a heavy cruiser. But no, we _had_ to make nice to the turians and throw money at a co-developed boondoggle." He took another look at the Normandy. "I'm here to make an inspection, Commander. The Normandy is an Alliance warship after all, and I intend to see she's up to snuff." I gestured to the airlock. "I'd be honored to show you around her, Admiral." He stopped me before I could enter. "Wait here, I won't be long." Ok...? I can't show him my ship? Anyway, I better not question orders. I waited outside the airlock for him to return.

A while later, he came back out. "Commander, I'm not happy." I raised my eyebrow. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that, sir. What's wrong?" "Who designed that CIC? Putting the commander aft of everyone else is inefficient. What if he needs to discuss with the operators toward the bow?" I could answer that easily. "Modified turian style. They prefer commanders looking over their subordinates rather than in the center of them. We wanted to see just how effectively humans can command with that setup." He began rubbing his chin in thought. "Hm, seems like a reasonable goal... but they should've studied that in a lab rather than on a front-line warship. I had to shake my head at that drive core of yours. 120 billion credits of eezo to make this monstrosity be able to move without giving itself away. You realize we could've made drive cores for 12,000 fighters with that money, right? What good is it to hide for only a few hours, anyway? Completely useless!" Another easy thing to refute. "We can loiter in an enemy system and monitor traffic, or drop infiltration teams on enemy bases. The Normandy can be much more effective than even the salarian STG." The Admiral kept thinking. "Maybe, maybe. But that's not the role of a proper warship after all. We're supposed to find and kill the enemy fleet, not count how many times their garrison on some remote world goes to the bathroom. And we really need to talk about your crew, Commander. Krogan? Asari? Quarians? Turians? What were you thinking, Commander?! You can't allow alien nationals free access to classified Alliance equipment!" My God, more of this bullshit I have to put up with. "Between Saren and the Geth, we have enough enemies out here already. Treating other species with suspicion and distrust won't win their hearts and minds, sir." He thought again. "That assumes the hearts and minds are worth winning, and that hasn't been proven yet. You have anything else to say, Commander, about the state of this vessel?" Actually, yes. "I think the Normandy is a good ship, sir. Even if you disagree, you have to see that her joint construction and multiracial crew make the Alliance look better in the galactic community." He grunted. "Your job is to look good, Commander, but the Alliance Navy's is to win wars. I'm not convinced the Normandy isn't a waste of taxpayer money, but I am convinced that you believe otherwise, and that you'll use it to the best of its ability. I'll be submitting a report to the Joint Military Council, and it won't be as negative as I had planned." He saluted. "Good hunting, Commander. Make us proud." He walked into the elevator and went down, leaving me alone on the docking bay platform.

 _The Presidium_

I was relaxing on a bench having a smoke when that officer from before came up to me. "Sir, I'll have to-" He recognized it was me again. "Dammit." He walked off in frustration, letting me have a moment alone again. I released more smoke into the air as he glared at me while shaking his head. I threw the butt of the cigarette on the ground, and laid my head back. After all that's happened so far, it's nice to just have a break, you know? I got up, and began walking around aimlessly.

I noticed that Ashley was talking to someone on her omnitool nearby. When I came over to her, I heard who she was talking to. "...oh, before I go. You said you're serving with Commander Shepard? We saw him on the news back here. I'm telling you, he's cute. Anyway, later sis." The call ended, and Ashley turned around, surprised to see me. "Please tell me you didn't hear that." I scratched the back of my neck. "I'm afraid I did." She cringed. "Oh, please, shoot me now." She looked back up at me. "She's one of my sisters, Sarah. The youngest. I'm surprised to see you here, sir. I thought you'd be chattin' it up with what's-her-name, Liara, or Tali." I crossed my arms. "Liara? Why'd you think that?" She shrugged. "Well, scuttlebutt says that you've got a bit of a thing for her. I can understand why, though. The crew's off-limits with all thos regs against fraternization, and she at least looks like a woman." I chuckled. "You think I'm interested in Liara because she's the only other person besides Tali that I'm allowed to date?" She gave me a look. "So you're interested in her? But then again, it could be just politics. Alien diplomat's daughter? Us under orders to make nice with the bug-eyed monsters? So, what's up? You didn't come by just to eavesdrop on family mail."

"I just came by to talk." We began walking. "Your family seems to be pretty important to you." "Yeah, we've always been close. Especially me and my sisters. With Dad on duty so much, I had to help Mom raise them." We stopped on the bridge over the lake. "Did your father serve with the Fleet?" She nodded. "Yeah. He took any shit posting he could get that offered space time. He worked his ass off trying to get recognized for what he'd done, but he never got above Serviceman Third Class." We leaned on the railing overlooking the water. "He was real proud when I made Chief. The first thing he did was salute me." "What about your mother? You haven't really mentioned her." She looked out over the water. "You have to know what military wives are like. Strong because they have to be, and able to raise kids while Dad's away on a six-month cruise somewhere. She has a degree in planetary geology. Both she and Dad wanted to see all sorts of new worlds." I wanted to take a smoke out, but I didn't for her sake. "So, you have more than one sister?" She nodded. "Yeah. I'm the oldest, and then Abby and Lynn. Sarah's the youngest. Believe it or not, she's still in high school. With four girls, Dad used to say he felt more outnumbered at home than during maneuvers." I thought again for a moment. She's a pretty interesting person after all.

"Where'd you grow up?" She made a gesture with her hands. "All over. We transferred a half dozen times before I finished grade school. You just have to go where Personnel Command sends you, you know? I guess that's why I'm so tight with my sisters. We'd all have to leave our friends we'd just met every two or three years." I looked out at the water for a moment, and then back at Ash. "So, after spending years raising your sisters, they still talk to you? That's amazing." She shrugged. "I mean, things were tense between Sarah and I for some time, but then we... bonded." I smiled. "That sounds like a story worth telling. Feel like sharing?" She thought for a moment, and then gave this 'fuck it' look at me. "Sarah got herself a boyfriend who wanted to go faster than she did. This guy's name was Mike. Personally, I didn't think he was a bad kid. He was just a bit pushy. Lynn would send me all these worried vid-mails, but then I'd just tell her to chill out." We began walking across the walkway. "If he really liked her, he wouldn't be so pushy." She thought for a moment. "Yeah. Of course, if he didn't ask at all, I'd wonder if he thought Sarah was ugly. But then again, damned if you do, damned if you don't. Mike thought they'd go for a 'romantic walk in the woods', because he figured it was way past time they did the deed." We sat down on a bench near a fountain. "She levered Mike face first into a tree and left. She didn't have a single scratch on her. Good thing Mom and Dad had us all learn some form of self-defense, I guess. I took emergency leave and walked Sar to school for a few days." Wait, all of them learned self-defense? "Wait. Did you say all of your sisters learned self-defense?" She nodded. "Lynn did pistol practice, but hated it. But she's just nervous. Sar took aikido, and Abby decided to learn the way of the sword. She always was a bit of a weirdo. She likes big skirts and those tops you have to tie her into. They do great things to her figure, though."

I never knew that Ash was this interesting. Seriously, why haven't I really talked to her before? "So, what did you learn?" She held up her fists for a moment. "One of Dad's friends taught me basic marine hand-to-hand." I cocked a half-smile. "So, you traveled all the way home just to walk your sister to school?" She shrugged. "What, it was only a dozen light years or so. It's just a day's cruise. It's not like I was going to Earth or anything like that. My last day out, Mike was waiting for us. Sar had told all her friends about what she did, so everyone at school now knew what he did. And he was pretty pissed. I wanted to snap him in half, but Sar gave me this kind of look that screamed 'let me handle it, I need to do this alone'. She kept her cool, God bless her, as he screamed and vented in her face. She just let him do it. But then, he tried to punch her." Her eyes got big. "I swear, she just flowed around him, and the next thing I know, he's face down on the sidewalk in his own blood." I couldn't help but smile and chuckle for a moment. "That's unbelieveable. Sarah must be as good as you." Why did you say that, Lucas? "She's way better. I'm more or less just a straight-up puncher. When he swung she just... she just wasn't there anymore. And he fell to the ground. Before they took him to the hospital, Mike touched Sar''s arm. I honestly thought that we was going to end up all bloodied and on the ground again. But he hung his head, whispered 'I'm sorry', and began crying. And guess what? She hugged him. The Williams women are a decisive bunch, Commander. We do things exactly when we're ready, not before, not after."

I looked at the fountain, and then back to her. "Your sister's really something else, alright. But you didn't mention your father during any of that. Was he on deployment or something?" "Dad always wanted to serve in space, but he wanted us to have real ground under our feet growing up. He'd always say, 'Space is beautiful, but you can't raise a family there.'" She stared at the fountain. "'I cannot rest from travel: I will drink life to the less. All times I have enjoy'd greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those that loved me, and alone.'" What? She likes classical literature, too? Damn, she's good. "'For always roaming with a hungry heart. Much have I seen and known. Cities of men, manners, climates, councils, governments...'" I gave her a look. "I had no idea you liked classical literature." She smiled. "'Ulysses' was Dad's favorite poem. Every time he got shipped out, he recorded me reading it. He had at least a dozen different versions when he retired." Hm. That's rather interesting. Her dad seems to actually care about her. "Does he still like it?" "I sure hope so. I always read it to his grave every time I go home. Yeah, Dad passed on a few years back. He's probably still watching us, though, so behave." What? He's dead? "You mean from wherever we go after death, right?"

"Dead on, skipper. He's with God now. That's not a problem with you, is it? That I believe in God?" I mean, I'm an atheist and all, but she can be a Christian if she wants to be. "Everyone has the right to believe in whatever they want to believe. It even says so in the Alliance Charter, only with fancier words." She smiled. "I'm glad you're open-minded about it. I've met quite a few people who were really weirded out by my faith. Just because I work in space, I can't believe in a higher power? Geez. Like, hello? Have you people seen out a window before? How can you look at this galaxy and not believe in something?" We both stood up. "Well, you should probably get going. You obviously have stuff to do. I didn't mean to take up so much of your time." I shook my head. "Nah. I've got nothing to do, so..." Before she could respond someone came up behind me. "Is that really.. you?! Commander Shepard?!" I gave a look to Ashley, and she left, understanding what was about to happen. "You're Commander Shepard, the hero of Eden Prime and the first human Spectre! I am so honored to meet you!" He bowed slightly. I shook his hand, too, and put on a smile. "Nice to meet you, and you are...?" He was pretty giddy. "My name is Conrad, Conrad Verner. Everyone's saying that you killed more than a hundred Geth on Eden Prime!" I leaned on the bench. "I spent most of the time just trying to stay alive and help the colonists. It's nothing that big." Conrad seemed like he had something on his mind. "I know you're probably really busy, but do you have time for a quick autograph?" He held out a piece of paper and a pen. I grabbed both, signed my name in the center, and gave it back to him. "Well, anything for a fan." His smile grew even wider than he already was. "Thanks, I really appreciate it. My wife is going to love this!"

It seemed like he had something else on his mind. He pulled out a camera. "Mind if I get a photo of you, too?" I shrugged. "Why not?" I stood at attention as he snapped a few photos of me. He was giddy again. "Oh man, this is the best thing that's happened to me in a long time! My wife is going to be so impressed!" He walked off still inspecting the photos and the autograph. Ok... well, that happened, I guess. I stretched my arms a bit, and began taking a walk.

Just as I was about to head back to the Normandy for some time, I was stopped by yet _another_ person. Jesus Christ, can I not have some time alone? She had a camera drone floating next to her. "Commander Shepard? I'm Khalisah bint Sinan Al-Jilani, with Westerlund News. Would you mind answering a few questions for our viewers?" Ah, fuck it. Why not? She's already kinda cornered me. "What do you want to know then?" She pulled out a datapad, and began looking over some things. "You've been given quite a unique position to represent humanity. The people want to get a sense of how you'll do just that." She moved the datapad to her other hand, and activated the camera drone's lights. The red light next to the shutter flicked on. "Humans have been trying to get the respect of the galactic community for the past 26 years now. Now, with that in mind, what are your feelings on being the first human Spectre in history?" Typical. Pretty much everyone asks me this. "The Spectres represent the best of every species in the galaxy, and to be asked to join them is the greatest honor."

She swiped to the next question on her datapad. "Some have called your appointment as a Spectre the Council 'throwing humans a bone'. Have you encountered any situations where the Council ever asked you to place its needs before the needs of humanity?" What kind of question is that? Whatever, I'll just answer it. "The Council is concerned with the needs of the entire galactic community, not just itself. Since we're now part of that community, our needs have been placed on their agenda. But we're one of many, and the needs of others need to be answered, too." She gave me a concerned look. "You really do believe that, do you?" I nodded slightly, and she continued. "Supposedly, you've been given command of an advanced human warship for your missions. Is there anything you'd like to say about her?" "Actually, the Normandy was co-developed by both human and turian engineers. Its design incorporates a lot of new innovations, all of which are classified, I'm afraid."

She swiped further down on her datapad. "So, the turians have knowledge of the Normandy that is being withheld from the human public? Do you think it was entirely appropriate to hand humanity's most advanced warship over to the Council?" Alright, now she just sounds like a fucking idiot. But I won't be _completely_ rude. "I wasn't aware it had been 'handed over' to anyone. I'm still in command of her, and the last time I checked, I'm a human. The same goes for the vast majority of my crew." She continued swiping down on her datapad. "Human, sure, but you do work for the Council and the Citadel now, Commander. One more question, Commander. Rumors back home state that you're tracking a 'rogue Spectre' named Saren. Would you like to make any comments on that?" Now we're crossing further into classified territory. I shook my head. "I'm afraid I can't comment on whatever my current assignment may, or may not, be." She smiled devilishly. "Don't worry, Commander. We'll find out at some point. The eyes of Earth are on you, so don't let us down." She shut off her drone's camera. "Thank you for your time, Commander." She walked off, her drone following closely behind her. I sighed heavily, and began looking around me to make sure no one else wanted to talk to me. But I noticed Tali leaning on a bench nearby, watching . Well, she doesn't really bother me. I came over to talk to her.

"Hey Commander. I saw what just happened. Are you ok?" I leaned on the railing across from her. "Yeah, I think so. I've been through worse, it's just that she-" Tali finished my sentence. "Came across like an idiot?" I nodded. "Mm-hm." I began to zone out. Man, she was an idiot. I noticed Tali come over and lean next to me. "I've been getting to sleep better. I guess that I'm getting used to your ship and how quiet it is. But I don't want this to get in the way of the mission, Shepard. First we'll stop Saren, and then I'll worry about my own problems." Wow. Selflessness is a good thing, but isn't she taking it a little... far? "Tali, you have to take a break at _some_ point and unwind. What have you been doing this whole time?" She was silent for a moment. "Checking the integrity of the Normandy's systems...?" I sighed, and brought my palm to my face. "Tali, you overwork yourself. You just have to let yourself go once in a while." She looked up at me. "How?" Wait. Really, how? I don't really know of anything that would interest her. She was still looking at me for an answer. "Well, I don't know what'd fit you. You wanna..." I stopped talking when I heard a ping on my omnitool. "Hold on." I opened the message that was sent to me. The message read, "I need to speak to you immediately. My name is Nassana Dantius. Meet me in the Embassy Bar."


	20. Chapter 20: Slavers

**Chapter 20: Slavers**

 _Embassy Bar_

 _The Presidium_

The bar was rather busy, considering where it is. Something probably happened on the diplomatic side of things that's got all the diplomats and ambassadors worried. But, then again, none of that is my concern right now. I've gotta find this Ms. Dantius somewhere in here, and she apparently has something very important for me. I approached the bar as the bartender finished pouring a drink for someone else. "Ah, Spectre! What can I get for ya?" I look around at the tables nearby and back at him. "Just a cold beer." I placed some credits onto the table as he grabbed a bottle from under the counter and set it in front of me. After he opened the bottle for me, I took a nice long drink. I set it down again.

"So, is there a Nassana Dantius here right now?" The bartender pointed to a table near the balcony. "That asari? She just came in a few minutes ago." I nodded, grabbed my beer, and came over to Nassana's table. She seemed busy on her datapad until she noticed me sit down across from her. She looked up at me and set the datapad down on the table. "So, Commander, I see you got my message." I nodded. "Yeah. You needed some help?" She slid the datapad to me. "I do. My sister, Dahlia, is a crewman aboard a cargo vessel. They've been operating out beyond the fringes of the Traverse. Her ship was attacked by privateers a while back, and there were no reported survivors." I picked up the datapad. "I'm sorry for your loss, then." She kept going. "That's where it gets complicated. Last week I received a strange message, and it had her voice on it. Dahlia's alive, but the rest of the crew was killed. She's been taken prisoner. So, the slavers demanded a massive ransom from me in exchange for her return." I took a drink from my beer. "Well, it seems to me like coming up with that ransom is the best way to ensure her safety." She took a drink from... whatever she was drinking. "That's what I thought. I did exactly what they wanted, and transferred the funds to the account that they had specified. Here's the thing. They never released her, and they haven't contacted me since."

She looked down at her feet. "I've made a terrible mistake, Shepard. I'm a diplomatic emissary! By law, I'm required to report any sort of extortion to C-Sec immediately." She looked back up at me. "But I was afraid for Dahila, so I just paid the ransom. Because of that, she's still msising and I could end up in jail if anyone finds out what I did!" I took another drink. "So... you want me to find her and bring her back." She pointed to the datapad. "You only have to bring her back. I've already gone through the trouble of finding her for you. I tracked the ransom payment through several accounts. Eventually, it brought me to a small mercenary group with their headquarters in the Artemis Tau cluster. I need you to go to their base, take them out, and bring my sister back. You'll be well rewarded for your efforts." More errands. Great. I took another drink from my beer. "You know what? Keep your reward. I'll bring your sister back, I promise." She smiled. "Thank you, Commander. I knew that you would be the right man for this. Come to the asari embassy when the job is done." I got up and left, taking my beer with me.

 _Sharjila, Macedon system_

The Mako flew over the top of a hill, and we could see the slaver base below. Wrex was already marking out targets below from the turret. "Snipers in guard towers, some mercs surrounding the place... nothing too big for us." Liara was checking her pistol in the back. This was really her first mission on the ground, after all. I could tell why she'd be nervous. I throttled the Mako forward at full speed, and we began speeding down the hill as Wrex began spraying the area with the heavy MG. A blast from the cannon killed a group of mercs and brought a tower crashing to the ground, crushing the sniper inside. I noticed the other snipers trying to climb down their towers to avoid the same fate, so I rammed into the towers at full force, sending the enemies flying, and ultimately falling to their deaths. Wrex killed the last merc as I crashed into the last tower, sending the sniper inside flying.

I parked the Mako in front of the entrance to the building, and we dismounted. Wrex began moving forward to open the door, but I held him back. "Wait." There was a contact on my radar coming from inside the building. We took cover behind the Mako, and watched the entrance intently. The door opened, and... what? It was a human teenager. He couldn't have been older than 16. He shaking with fright, with a pistol in his hand. Wrex got this look on his face, and glanced at me. I shook my head, trying to signal to him not to do it. But he just nodded, and charged the kid, who couldn't even get a shot off. He was slammed against the side of the building, and Wrex held his shotgun to the kid's head. As he was about to pull the trigger, Liara pulled his arm away. "He's innocent, don't harm him!" The kid was nodding in a panic. "Yeah, yeah! I didn't even want to be here anyway!" I tapped Wrex on the shoulder. "Let the kid go." He grunted, and the kid dropped to the ground with a thud.

The kid got up, and rubbed some dirt off of his clothes. He was still shaking. "It's ok, calm down." The kid breathed deeply for a while, and he seemed calmer. "Alright. My name's Ryan. I don't want any trouble, I only came here a few weeks ago." I nodded towards the door. "What's inside?" He scratched his back. "Eh... it isn't pretty. There's a lot of our guys in there, and even a few krogan. You guys are gonna have a hard time clearing the place out, if that's what you're here for." He shrugged. "Who even are you guys?" I removed my helmet, and he instantly recognized who I was. "Commander Shepard?! Oh my God, I don't want to be here. I don't want anything to do with a Spectre." He began running away from us and across the field. Wrex pumped his shotgun, and I put my helmet back on. "Well, there's no sense in standing around." I nodded, and Liara and I drew our pistols again.

When we stepped through the door, my hardsuit's radar was already detecting large amounts of slavetrs waiting for us. Some were human, others were asari, salarian, and the kid was right. There were krogan, too. We positioned ourselves outside of the doorway to the main room, and I opened the door. I jumped back into cover when a hail of bullets came through the door, leaving the wall behind us riddled with holes. There was a moment of silence until we began hearing movement in the other room. Someone ran through the door with a shotgun, only to be disarmed and used as a body shield by Wrex. Wrex began going into some sort of blood rage as he tossed him off to the side, and charged into the room. Liara and I followed closely behind him, letting him smash every enemy in sight. We were suppressing the hostiles on the balcony of the 2nd floor so that Wrex could charge his way up there when someone who I previously thought dead tackled me to the ground. The asari had a knife in hand and was trying to sink the knife into my face, but I knocked her onto her ass. I got back up and kicked her across the face, sending her back onto the ground. Liara put a bullet in her head, ensuring that she was dead. Both of us turned back to the combat to see Wrex wrestling with another krogan in the center of the room.

Wrex socked him in the guy, sending the other krogan reeling back in pain. Just as he began to look up, Wrex headbutted him between the eyes, knocking him on his ass. Wrex pumped his shotgun and sent a shell through his head. It was rather interesting to watch, but we still had a fight going on. Wrex was already charging up the stairs as Liara and I continued to fire on the hostiles on the second floor. The hostiles above eventually noticed Wrex and turned their fire to him, but it was no use. He was already knocking them around everywhere, with some of them falling over the side of the balcony. The contacts on my radar slowly disappeared, until the radar only showed us in the building. Wrex finally came down to meet Liara and I in the center of the room. "Yeah, they're dead." He was covered in multiple shades of blood. Liara turned to me. "Commander, we should search for Nassana's sister. She is bound to be somewhere around here." I nodded. "Of course. You two search the bodies for any sort of clues as to where she might be, I'll check the back." They began searching the corpses, and I entered the room in the back.

Jesus Christ, this is a scene that I really didn't want to see today. Their leader committed suicide just before we cleared the place out. She probably knew her fate would be life in a prison somewhere. My God, what would a life sentence even be like for an asari? Nevermind. There's gotta be something around here. The desk was covered with blood, and the gun she had used was on the floor. I kicked it away from the body, and moved her carefully off of the desk. There was a datapad in her hand, so I slipped it out and wiped some blood off of it. "Dahlia, take the credits. But this is the only time I'm ever doing this for you. -Nassana" What? I checked more datapads on the desk, all addressed to Dahlia. Was the woman at my feet Dahlia? I looked down at her. She did bear a striking resemblance to Nassana. Jesus, she knew her sister was extorting money from her this whole time. Was she just trying to get her out of the way and tie up loose ends? I'm going to have to talk to her about this.

 _March 20th, 2183_

 _Asari Embassy_

 _The Presidium_

When I walked into the embassy, the clerk stopped working and looked up at me. "Can I help you, sir?" I leaned down on the desk. "I'm looking for Nassana Dantius. Is she around here?" She swiveled her chair away from me and towards the back of the embassy. "Nassana?" There was a moment of silence. "Yes?" "There's a human here to see you." I heard Nassana coming over from the back. When she came around to see me. She seemed surprised. "Shepard? Did you find my sister?" I crossed my arms. She seemed to get the signal, and signalled for the clerk to leave for a moment. When she was gone, I began talking.

"Unfortunately, Dahlia's dead. But I know she was blackmailing you, Nassana." She sighed. "So. The truth finally comes out. I hope you aren't angry. Surely you understand why I lied to you?" I shook my head. "If people found out my sister had been a criminal, I'd be considered a security risk to the Citadel. C-Sec would revoke my clearance, or they'd place me on administrative leave until they apprehended her. That's why I misled you. I couldn't risk you exposing me for this, but now that Dahlia is completely out of the picture, I no longer have a problem." I sighed. "You know, I would've helped anyway if you had just told me what was really going on." She shrugged. "Eh, perhaps you're right. I'm sorry. We have some trust issues in my family." Obviously. "I shall transfer a little something into your bank account as a token of my appreciation. I'm sure that you'll find the amount pleasing."

I cleared my throat. "You know, you're a diplomat on her way up the ranks. It could be pretty handy to have a Spectre who owes you a favor." She thought for a while. "You have a good point. Anyone can just come up with credits, but I can provide the proper authorization to purchase prototype asari mods." She opened her omnitool, and typed in a few things. "I'll have you added to our manufacturer's preferred client list. I believe you'll be very interested in what they have to offer." She opened the door. "Goodbye, Shepard. It's been a pleasure doing business with you. I have a meeting to attend to." She and I shook hands, and we both left.


End file.
